Georg Dobler: The composition of dreams

Artist list

Georg Dobler

From June 30 through September 11, 2011, the work of the important Berlin jewelry artist and designer Georg Dobler will be presented in an extensive exhibition in the Silbersaal of the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus. In addition to their aesthetic quality, the selected pieces from the years 1980 to 2010 document the highly noticeable artistic evolution that Dobler (born 1952) has expressed in his work during the last three decades.

Soon after successfully completing his training as a jeweler/goldsmith, Dobler disassociated himself from traditional goldsmith design – the works created starting in 1979 exhibit a distinctly reduced formal language. They are lattice-like pieces oriented on geometry, mostly of steel wire and black chrome, that appear to have been designed on a drawing-board and that give structure to the surrounding space.

Beginning in 1986, Dobler’s creations underwent another radical shift: molds of plants, fruits, and insects were cast in oxidized silver – in combination with large, mostly cut, colored stones – aroused his interest. Falling back on earlier examples – with new interpretations, however – these necklaces and brooches, in particular, demonstrated an opulence that now had come back into fashion in spite of all the resistance.

In a third stylistic “break,” in recent years Dobler has returned to an earlier reduction of this opulence. Although nature casts of branches form the matrix for the brooches, through the utilization of acrylic resin, the attached “blossoms” no longer appear as being natural. The extremely differentiated forms and the thus established new and reflective contemplation of this important jewelry designer and university teacher at the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst in Hildesheim define the appeal of this presentation.