Jewelry / Schmuck: The newly curated Danner Rotunde

Every five years the international world of jewellery eagerly awaits the reopening of the jewellery space at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich - the Danner Rotunde - where guest curators select objects from the two world-class jewellery collections assembled there - that of the Danner Stiftung and of Die Neue Sammlung | The Design Museum - and present them to an enthusiastic audience.

This unique show brings together the who’s who of international auteur jewellery from the past seventy years and can currently draw on 323 artists - from 31 countries across all five continents - of the highest quality, without exception: for brooches, rings, bracelets and necklaces are only admitted into the collection if they are completely convincing from an artistic standpoint.

Although the two jewellery collections complement each other perfectly and seem as though they have always been a single entity from the very start, it was uncertain for a long time whether Die Neue Sammlung and the Danner Stiftung would find a place for the mutual presentation of their jewellery. At the end of the 1990s, talks between Florian Hufnagl, the director of the Neue Sammlung, and Herbert Rüth, the board director of the Danner Stiftung, led to an agreement to permanently loan the Danner jewellery collection to the Museum - on the precondition that there would be a new museum building. But for a long time, this was anything but assured.

As it became clear that the project would become a reality, the jewellery designers Otto Künzli and Herman Jünger compiled a list of must-haves, at the request of Florian Hufnagl, which would establish the jewellery collection’s international breakthrough, making it unique across the globe. It is not about ‘addictive collecting’, rather it is important to ‘show first-rate works, highlighting artistic trends with exemplary specimens’, a strategy to which the presentation in the Danner Rotunde owes it special character to this day.

The publication JEWELRY presents the two auteur jewellery collections in their entirety for the first time. Over a thousand illustrations and more than 1,700 pieces of jewellery over 576 pages encompass the entire spectrum of wearable art.

The extensive illustrated section is accompanied by a history of the collections by Petra Hölscher. Original conversations with protagonists bring to life the milestones in the Danner Rotunde’s evolution. With its exceptional, aesthetically compelling design by Frederik Linke, this comprehensive work concludes with a richly illustrated chronology and short biographies of all the artists represented. An unprecedented overview of the international jewellery scene - as seen from a Munich perspective.

An indispensable standard work for all fans of auteur jewellery, which sets new benchmarks in scope, design and scholarly reappraisal!