Franz Bette: Red X Thread

Book / Arnoldsche Artists Curating Exhibiting

Published: 25.01.2019

Editor:: Sabine Runde, Yaman Shao

Edited by:: Arnoldsche Art Publishers

Edited at:: Stuttgart

Edited on:: 2019

Technical data:: 96 pages, 30.5 x 21.5 cm, Softcover, English / Chinese / German.

ISBN / ISSN:: 978-3-89790-544-3

Price:: from 28 €

Order:: Arnoldsche Art Publishers

Inner pages of the book.

Franz Bette studied gold- and silversmithing in the 1960s under Friedrich Becker. Consequently, his early work is characterised by a ‘dynamic jewellery’ of his own interpretation – geometric forms that ﬁt into each other yet remain moveable. For Franz Bette, it is about imparting more lightness to jewellery, and over time he has continued to experiment, using ever thinner and more ﬁnely worked metal, even wire, which he bends and interlaces in order to hold the gemstones in place.

For his project Red X Thread, Franz Bette has developed an entirely new work complex, in which he advances his artistic approach – based on his experiences in Asia. Since 1989 Bette has been a regular guest in Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Through exchanges with workshop participants there, he has cultivated new sensibilities to aesthetics, materiality and workmanship.

Whereas his ‘Western’ design vernacular has long been informed by steel, silver, gold and plastic, he has now expanded this with materials such as porcelain, paper, bamboo, wood and textiles. He incorporates these into his jewellery objects, all the while conscious of their traditional use and signiﬁcance in Asia. Cord is used to supplement the wire, sometimes replacing it entirely. By introducing paper the works become increasingly ephemeral. With his current jewellery objects that, far removed from all monumentality, shift between spatial drawing and sculpture, Franz Bette occupies a unique position in the international art jewellery scene.

This is echoed in the unique book design by the Paris design ofﬁce VIER5, which showcases the exciting interplay between large-format reproductions of Franz Bette’s objects and texts available in three languages (Chinese, English, German).

A special book on a jewellery artist who masters the art of bringing together Eastern and Western design traditions and uniting them in a sensitive way to form autonomous objects of poetry.

Exhibition: Red X Thread: Franz Bette – Jewellery, ALIEN Art, Kaohsiung (TW), 15.2.–23.6.2019