Jewelry Stories. Highlights from the Collection 1947-2019

Jewelry Stories highlights the Museum of Arts and Design’s unique, world-class collection of studio and contemporary art jewelry from the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia, a medium that comprises one-third of its permanent collection. Artists working in this field create jewelry rooted in sculptural experimentation and the concept of art as a wearable medium. The pieces featured represent the history of art jewelry as told from a largely US perspective. Jewelry artists are inspired by such subjects as found objects and materials, as well as by politics and pressing social issues, allowing for the development of unique, personal narratives in each piece. Each of the jewelry stories is written by an expert on the artist or subject, thus the book also celebrates the contributions they have made to the field.

For Aileen Osborn Webb, founder of the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), it was a given to include jewelry in her vision for the collection: convinced of the role crafts play in the cultivation of societies, she also saw jewelry as a key part of this function. The founding of the museum in 1956 coincided with the American studio jewelry movement, which flourished after World War II. Émigrés from the Bauhaus milieu -equipped with new educational theories and materials- likewise embarked on a journey of prolific experimentation. Materials previously not used for jewelry, such as aluminum and plastic, which had been mass-produced during the war, found their way into manufacturing, giving rise to new artistic forms.

Since its founding, MAD has been continuously collecting individual pieces of contemporary art jewelry, in doing so keeping pace with the development of the discipline. Comprising over 950 items, the jewelry collection has grown over the years to make up a third of the museum’s total inventory.
In the Tiffany Jewelry Gallery at MAD, outstanding works from the collection are presented in 45 display cases, enabling visitors to explore these significant pieces in detail. For the accompanying publication, some one hundred objects have been arranged according to the theme or affiliation and grouped into 45 “stories.” They illustrate the interconnections between the works and offer informative insights into the personal, social, and art-historical backgrounds that informed their creation. In addition, Barbara Gifford Paris describes in her text “A MAD Jewelry Tale” the history of jewelry in the USA - with a special focus on the collection at the Museum of Arts and Design. The book concludes with a chronology of key
exhibitions, publications, and artistic milestones.