But what is meant by contemporary jewelry?
Contemporary jewelry is made from paper, steel, aluminum, glass, nylon, PVC, plastic, recycled materials, solid, liquid, natural or industrial materials. Just think of the works of the pioneers of Dutch goldsmithing: Emmy van Leersum (1930-1984) and her husband Gijs Bakker (1942). Since the late 1960s, they have been making ornaments from aluminum and plastic. Their jewelry is characterized by a refined minimalism and is designed to adapt to the body.
The aim of these two Dutch artists is to include the human body itself within the creative act, which is no longer just a support, but also a significant complement to the jewel. Bakker is well known for his brooches and necklaces created by interposing between two layers of plastic laminate, photographic images taken from the contemporary world and embellished with the luminous inserts of diamonds.
There is no limit to the creative imagination of those artists who dedicate themselves exclusively to the goldsmith field. The work of the English Peter Chang (1944) is proof of this. Since the early 1980s, the artist has recognized plastic (acrylic, resin, PVC) as his favorite material and creates ornaments that are concretions of bright colors with surreal shapes. His brooches and bracelets are playful creations.
The preciousness of the contemporary jewel no longer consists in the intrinsic value of the material used, but in the idea, in the communicative intention expressed by the artist and consequently it is no longer a tangible manifestation of social status, but of a cultural choice. The jewel is now even more a tool of personal communication of its creator.
We are reminded of this by the Swiss artist Otto Künzli (1948), who made his name in the early 1980s by proposing a series of pins in rigid expanded foam, covered with wallpaper. Künzli's jewels are irreverent, irreverent, subversive towards conventional society and playful. It is no coincidence that the art critic Peter Dormer defines the Swiss artist as «the one true political jeweller» and «chic clown» .
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