Pin by Thomas Gentille. A Future Classic in Contemporary Jewellery

Thomas Gentille was himself a “classic.” In fact, he was designated a Klassiker der Moderne (Modern Classic) at SCHMUCK 2006. As uncompromising in his art as in his life, Gentille focused mainly on brooches (referred to as “pins” by him), which, despite their small scale, manifest the painterly and/or sculptural quality of wall reliefs. Gentille employed atypical materials for his precision jewelry. This pin, featured in his 2018 solo exhibition, Color Light Air, at Gallery Loupe in Montclair, New Jersey, is made from aircraft plywood, pumice, paint, pure pigment, and marble dust.



Why Future Classics?
What Makes a Contemporary Jewellery Piece Become a Classic? Our aim is not to define academic criteria or impose any form of conservatism, but to collect subjective perspectives that help us understand the values and expectations shaping our field, without reducing them to fixed rules or hierarchies. By sharing these voices, we invite you to think together and open a conversation about durability, relevance, and the ways particular works contain certain patterns or enigmas that make them continue to speak over time.

 

About the author

Toni Greenbaum (a.k.a. Toni Lesser Wolf) is a New York-based art historian specializing in twentieth and twenty-first century jewelry and metalwork. She wrote Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960, Sam Kramer: Jeweler on the Edge, the entries on jewelry and metalwork for Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was, and co-wrote the chapter on jewelry for Women Designers in the U.S.A. 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference, along with numerous book chapters, exhibition catalogues, and essays for arts publications. She is currently working on Bodyworks: The Jewelry of Art Smith, a monograph about modernist jeweler Art Smith, to be published by Smithsonian Books in fall 2026.

Greenbaum has lectured internationally at institutions such as the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah. She has worked on exhibitions for many museums, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; and Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York. Greenbaum is on the Board of Directors of Art Jewelry Forum and a member of its Editorial Advisory Committee.

Toni Greenbaum on Instagram

Photo by David Bielander.