Karl Fritsch: Lucy

Artist list

Karl Fritsch

"Lucy" or scientifically : AL288-1 
She was a female ape who lived in Africa 3.2 million years ago. After examination of bone formation in her hand, it was discovered she had the capability to hold tools between her thumb and forefinger.
Lucy was named after a Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

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“My brilliance I have from my mother.”
“You should wear them some times.”

The last time I saw Karl was in Munich when I got my mother’s brilliants back from him, set in a wonderfully beautiful ring. The big diamond in the middle is held by a number of thick rods of white gold that bend over the stone securing and half covering it. The two small diamonds on the sides are almost smothered in the gold, peeping out, with small twinkles from the strands of metal holding them.

I love jewellery and I make jewellery, I even own jewellery by people I admire but I had never worn any. Now I wear the ring and have also come to wear the other jewellery I own. It is lovely, I am a new person, thanks to Karl’s purifying my mother’s brilliants and removing all the heaviness and sadness that goes with a strained mother-son relationship.

My first Fritsch (I have five all together) I bought at one of Karl’s first exhibitions in his studio in the Domagkstrasse. It was an exhilarating experience seeing these strange and wonderful things that fulfilled all my dreams and expectations in jewellery: gold, gemstones, heavy bronze and silver and dark iron, and of all things, facetted stones! (Nobody had touched them in years.) Small and coy, large and representational, modest and extravagant, naughty and witty, things of wonder and joy, symbols of power and of love.

Purifying and removing the weight of the past is what Karl does. His jewellery and approach is actually very conventional in form, in function and the choice of materials and yet completely new. He disregards age-old values that have become stale and shallow. He does not deal in envy and does not reproach or grudge. Instead Karl invites us to look at things anew, to discard the baggage that has become a hindrance and to look at things and enjoy them for what they are.

Daniel Kruger
Text for Karl Fritsch Catalogue