Divine

Artist list

Masao Takahashi

The classic Japanese culture did not know jewellery as it exists in Europe. Instead small, beautifully worked implements and subtly decorated hair ornaments served to underscore the status and good taste of their wearer. Over time, Japan developed a high level of craftsmanship with a great sensitivity to workmanship, decoration and emblems. The work of contemporary artists – who nowadays do make rings, brooches and necklaces – combines this traditional idiom with an innovative, border-crossing mentality.

The work of Masao Takahashi still shows the time-honoured fascination with the combination of beauty and violence. In the past, his jewellery was sometimes literally razor-sharp, or it contained mercury or poisonous pigments. His ideas in his new pieces go in quite a different direction. Fragile eggshell is carefully cultivated in delicate brooches: refinement as a remedy for mortality.