Daniel Kruger: Between Nature and Artifice. Jewellery 1974-2014

Very rarely does a jewellery artist manage to find new pictorial worlds of such a personal nature during the course of their creative work so freely and unencumbered as Daniel Kruger (born 1951, South Africa). His experiments with the most diverse materials, decoration, forms and structures testify to an exuberant creativity for which he was honoured with the renowned Herbert Hofmann Award for Art Jewellery in 1987 and 2005.

Daniel Kruger uses found objects of every kind and quotes historical forms and decoration. The unusual combinations of materials as well as new interpretations of techniques used in handcraft and textile work lend his jewellery pieces ever surprising new perspectives and aesthetic pleasure as well as a decidedly erotic quality, as he himself puts it.

The works from the last forty years presented in this publication not only illustrate Daniel Kruger’s curiosity with unconventional techniques and materials; they are also an expression of his awareness of nature and artificiality, history and tales, tradition and present: sometimes ironic, at times restrained, but frequently also opulent and sensual.

With contributions by Jorunn Veiteberg, Monika Brugger and Daniel Kruger.

Texts in English and German