Jens-Rüdiger Lorenzen: Jewelry Sculptures

Artist list

Jens-Rüdiger Lorenzen

In the late 1960’s, Jens-Rüdiger Lorenzen was one of the early advocates of a new understanding of jewelry, setting accents with very personal design concepts and unconventional materials. After training as an apprentice goldsmith, Lorenzen continued his studies at the Kunst + Werkschule Pforzheim (now a college) from 1965 to 1968 under Professor Reinhold Reiling. In addition to his independent work in his studio, Lorenzen made a significant contribution to the training of the following generations: from 1974 to 1985 at the Staatlichen Zeichenakademie Hanau and then as a professor at the college in Pforzheim until 2008.

In this retrospective in the Silver Room of the German Goldsmiths’ House, Jens-Rüdiger Lorenzen presents 80 miniature jewelry sculptures beginning with early pieces from his study years and continuing through recent works. Conscious overlapping and under-layering of lines and surfaces as well as the play with and in space, give an ever-increasing prominence to plasticity in the works. The viewer can learn more about the development of certain pieces through the accompanying working sketches which to a certain degree are elements of the artistic expression. In his most recent works, the artist plays with the lightness and transparency of parchment which has been incorporated into the actual steel construction of the rings, pendants and brooches.