Nel Linssen

Bio

Nel Linssen (1935-2016) trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem, initially working as a pattern cutter before turning to textiles. In 1986, an experiment that produced an unexpected three-dimensional form set the course for the rest of her career: from that point on, she devoted herself entirely to jewellery made of paper.
Working with laminated paper stiffened by a middle layer of glass fibre, Linssen built her bracelets and necklaces from folded, repeating modular elements, threaded onto elastic cord. Her pieces read as mathematical constructions — precise, logical, almost architectural — yet they were never conceived as static objects. Colour, cut, fold, light and shadow were all considered in relation to how a piece would move and shift once worn, so that the jewellery only reveals its full character on the body: colours emerge, contours shift, and the same piece looks different from one moment, and one wearer, to the next.
Over three decades, Linssen refined this modular language while continuing to draw on the rhythms and structures of the botanical world. Her work entered major public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 2015, the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh marked her 80th birthday with a solo exhibition surveying both new and historic pieces. In 2014, she donated a substantial body of her work, spanning thirty years of practice, to Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen.

Statement

"My work arises intuitively and in an empirical way. I am continually trying to discover logical constructions, inspired by rhythms and structures in the botanical world.
In the development of my ideas, the use of paper as a means of expressing myself was an obvious choice. As a material, it possesses a lot of qualities that are useful to me. Moreover, the tactile qualities of paper are important in connection with wearable objects. For years I used the best quality paper for my jewellery; unfortunately this paper is no longer available, so now I use paper with a plastic coating.
The cause for a new line of research is often quite coincidental. Struck by a certain form or material, I start a quest in which an interaction arises between thought and action, in order to arrive at a useful concept. Finding the appropriate technical solutions is an important challenge in this process."