Gioielli d'Autore - Padova e la Scuola dell'oro

La Scuola orafa di Padova – the Gold-Working School of Padua - is admired throughout the world and now, finally, a significant and important exhibition brings its special value to the public.
The jewellery displayed here has nothing to do with mass-produced objects made on an industrial scale. What the great “master jewellers of Padua” have been creating for more than fifty years are unique pieces, sculptured jewels destined not only for exhibitions but also for collectors. It is not by chance that, like every true art form, many of these marvels are already displayed in dozens of museums around the world.

“Master Jewellers: the Gold-Working School of Padua” will open on april 4 2008 in the most prestigious exhibition venue of the city, the Medieval Palazzo della Ragione. Promoted by the City and Province of Padova with Veneto Region and the Soprintendenza al Patrimonio Storico Artistico e Etnoantropologico, with support of the Foundation of the Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, the exhibition – like the lavish Allemandi catalogue – has been prepared by Mirella Cisotto Nalon and Annamaria Spiazzi. The exhibition is itinerant and, after Padua, will travel to many other museums in Italy and abroad.
The Gold-Working School of Padua is the only one of its kind in Europe. It was at first a highly original experiment, the result of the work of individuals endowed with creative talent of an unusual kind. Initially these artists focused on an anti-commercial and anti-decorative style, based on purity of forms, carefully balanced materials, perfectly equilibrated proportions, and tenacious experimentation with new techniques and materials. The new life which sparkled in the School sprang from the mind and technical ability of Mario Pinton, whose accurate craftsmanship led to the threshold of the artistic universe. Already in the early 1950s he conceived jewellery as a work of art, the product of a thought, an idea, a project, of the same importance and on the same level as a painting or a sculpture.the field of contemporary jewellery.

Most of them trained at the Istituto Statale d’Arte “P. Selvatico”. Although differing greatly in style and in the presentation of their personal research, they have become internationally recognised and – thanks to their creative genius and advanced experimental techniques – have received important awards world-wideAbout one hundred show-cases will display more than 500 works, many of them never seen before, sculptured jewels created from the 1950s until today.

This occasion is the latest, and the most important, of a series of exhibitions and events revealing how the great personalities and movements in the world of international jewellery have been working in the avant-garde limelight for more than ten years. So this exhibition is also historical in nature, and follows the creative paths of the three great Paduan maestri: Mario Pinton, Francesco Pavan, Giampaolo Babetto and their students, who have in turn become important names in the artistic world: Giorgio Cecchetto, Lucia Davanzo, Maria Rosa Franzin, Stefano Marchetti, Paolo Marcolongo, Paolo Maurizio, Barbara Paganin, Renzo Pasquale, Diego Piazza, Piergiuliano Reveane, Marco Rigovacca, Graziano Visintin, Alberta Vita, Annamaria Zanella and Alberto Zorzi.

Each work displayed is a tiny, perfect example of the gold-worker’s genius and creativity. The rich gleam of gold, the ductility and almost lunar nuances of silver, precious metals worked in unfamiliar ways, are flanked by others, less conventional, such as steel, strong and decisive, the iridescence of titanium, the softness and warmth of copper, or the severity of burnished iron. With them are transparent stones, often not precious, but set together with glass, wood, resin, enamels, earths and pigments, cleverly treated … all these diverse components have recently given rise to an explosive enthusiasm for colour, for so many years restrained or soberly applied in sensitive combinations of metals, plays between gold and wood, or associated with niello, rediscovered after centuries … here are all the hallmarks of masters of their art. Noble metals, often treated to create splendid textures, are flanked by plastics, resins and fabrics, the so-called “poor” materials, all chosen and used with equilibrium, in balanced compositions where the sense of rhythm and harmony reign, where the truly precious elements are creativity, interpretation, concept, experience, emotion and fantasy. 

The catalogue contains critical texts and an ample selection of photographs, documenting exhaustively and for the first time the creative paths followed by these artists and setting the phenomenon of their work within the ambit of Italian and European artistic movements. The aim was also to produce a chronological and critical overview of examples of the artists’ works and documentation regarding them, since many pieces are scattered in public and private collections and, in some cases, only entrusted to the memory of the artists themselves. 

Activities

List of events:


venerdì 4 aprile 2008
17.00
Istituto d’Arte “Pietro Selvatico”, largo Meneghetti, 1 Padova
Inaugurazione mostra
Gioielli dagli anni ’50 a oggi
19.00
Marijke Studio, via Gabelli, 7 Padova
Inaugurazione mostra
Peter Skubic, gioiello e scultura a parete 

sabato 5 aprile 2008 
11.00
Palazzo della Ragione
Incontro con Peter Skubic
15.00 – 19.30
Studio Aperto con AGC
Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo
Luciano Tomasin Studio, via Baldissera, 9/1 Padova
Interventi:
15.30 Rita Marcangelo, presidente AGC Associazione
Gioiello Contemporaneo, presentazione AGC
16.00 Lecture: Graziano Visintin – La geometria dell’oro
17.00 Musica di Giuliano Perin – vibrafono
17.30 Wine&Bread, esposizione di opere di oreficeria

Incontri organizzati in collaborazione con il Sistema di CategoriaOrafi-Argentieri-Orologiai dell’Unione Provinciale Artigiani di Padova


Sala Paladin Palazzo Moroni 

mercoledì 14 maggio 
18.00 Stefano Rosso, L’oreficeria: tecniche di lavorazione 

mercoledì 28 maggio 
18.00 Mauro Sette, La storia delle fedi matrimoniali

mercoledì 4 giugno 
18.00 Daniela Banci, Simbologia delle pietre

mercoledì 11 giugno 
18.00 Rita Maso - Viviana Zorzan, Le gemme

mercoledì 18 giugno 
18.00 Mauro Rigo, I materiali preziosi: l’oro

mercoledì 25 giugno 
18.00 Luciano Mingardo, I materiali preziosi: il platino

mercoledì 2 luglio 
18.00 Venicio e Enrico Bovo, I materiali preziosi: l’argento