Exhibition: True to Form – Contemporary Czech Jewelry – 26th Jan-20th May 2023

 

TRUE TO FORM : the  intersection in the history of modern Czech jewelry

 

Exhibition curator : Julie Bergmann

Exhibition duration: January 25 – May 20, 2023

The exhibition ends with the support of the Czech Center of Athens

 

 

NEW PERIODIC REPORT IN THE MKILL

MKIL, since its foundation in 1994, presents art exhibitions that aim to highlight visual jewelry as art, symbolism and a functional object. Having organized more than ninety (90) periodical exhibitions and with the contribution of its international programs, it has managed to present to its visitors artistic works from all over the world, while hosting in its permanent collections its own Art Jewelry Collection ” The Helen Drutt International Studio Collection ‘.

 

With this periodic exhibition, MKIL turns its attention to the history of Czech jewelry, which has a strong presence in international museum collections and art jewelry exhibitions. In collaboration with the curator of the exhibition Julie Bergmann and with the partnership of the Czech Center of Athens , an attempt is being made to highlight twenty-four (24) more important representatives of Czech jewelry, whose works are exhibited in some of the most important Museums in the world such as: Victoria and Albert Museum (London, United Kingdom), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Corning Museum of Glass (New York, USA), Schuckmuseum (Pforzheim, Germany), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, USA), Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA) etc.

 

THE PICTURE/ ARTISTIC JEWELERY

In the last more than sixty years, visual jewelry has been particularly recognized on the world map of contemporary art, constituting a field of conversation and application of its different forms. Now, contemporary visual jewelry artists can combine elements and techniques freely adopted from different artistic fields, such as, for example, applied arts, visual arts and decorative arts. arts), while performance techniques and many others are even used.

 

Today, jewelry as art is observed and researched as a phenomenon, conceived as a work of art, manufactured as an individual work by a single artist/creator. It is perceived as a controversial piece in need of a “carrier”, while finding its maximum potential of expression when the knowledge of the subject, materials and history meet. A piece of jewelry can be characterized as “artistic” when its nature includes, as features, the making of a political / social statement (statement), experimentation in the use of materials and the element of uniqueness, while at the same time, the design and manufacturing process is attributed to a creator.

 

TRUE TO FORM – THE MODERN CZECH VISUAL JEWELERY

The present group exhibition is a cross section in the history of Czech jewelry, which traces the artistic creation of four generations of creators.

Contemporary visual jewelry in Czechoslovakia, as a phenomenon of artistic creation, is observed after the Second World War. Already, since the early 1950s, several Czech and Slovak jewelry artists have established themselves with their work internationally. In the next two decades, contemporary art jewelry seems to gain more and more ground in Czechoslovakia, which is evident from the numerous participations of local art jewelry in exhibitions abroad, gradually conquering their place in important museum collections in Europe and the world.

The second generation of artists came to the fore in the 1980s, while it also has a strong presence in the present exhibition with the participation of works by artists who either lived and worked artistically in metropolises abroad, during the 1980s and 1990s, or remained in their homeland.

Highlighting different approaches to the art of contemporary visual jewelry, without excluding technological and material means, materials such as glass, clay, bone, plastic, precious stones and metals create interesting contrasts, while new forms emerge by “playing” with light or movement , taking, at the same time, a position against conceptual issues.

Today, Czech jewelry continues to bring forth new generations of creators who seem to keep the tradition of the art alive. The presence of their work in the exhibition declares, self-evidently, that they are worthy successors of their predecessors.

The exhibition presents works by the following artists:

Václav Cigler, Jaroslav Kodejš, Josef Symon, Karel Vratislav Novák, Pavel Opočenský, Eva Eisler,

Petr Dvořák, Stanislava Grebeníčková, Markéta Šílená, Zdena Roztočilová, Vladimír Komňacký,

Jiří Šibor, Petr Vogel, Karel Votipka, Ludmila Šikolová, Martin Pouzar, Jana Válková Střílková,

Markéta Šumová, Adéla Wiesenbergová, Oldřich Sládek, Martina Singerová, Eva Růžičková, Kateřina Matěchová, Karla Olšáková.

Julie Bergmann – Exhibition Curator

Lucy Kuligova – Czech Center of Athens

Ioanna Lalaouni – CEO of MKIL