Newark Museum launches jewelry exhibition
National Jeweler, NY
APRIL 26, 2006 – Newark, N.J. — A museum exhibit spanning five centuries of American and European jewelry masterpieces is slated to land next week in a city that may be best known as an airport hub for Continental, but was also once a hot spot for gold jewelry manufacturing: Newark, N.J.
“Objects of Desire: 500 Years of Jewelry,” will run May 3, 2006-Feb. 18, 2007, at New Jersey’s Newark Museum, according to a release issued Monday.
The collection of 200 objects showcasing the art of jewelry design dates back to the 15th century, and progresses through the eras to feature current jewelry designs, according to a Newark Museum release.
Not content to merely display the jewelry, the exhibit is curated to reveal jewelry’s various meanings through the ages, and the historical reasons wearers have had for donning it—to express qualities ranging from status and affiliation, through the commemoration of sentiments and occasions such as faith and mourning. Subdivisions within the exhibit aiming to reveal such various uses for jewelry include: Faith and Fashion; Watches—The Value of Time; Commemoration and Rememberance; Cameos, a Window to Antiquity; Mourning; Souvenirs; Hair and Head; Accessories; Bracelets; Necklaces; Men’s Jewelry; Jewelry as Fashion; and Jewelry as Art.
Notable pieces within the exhibit include an amethyst pendant made in 1890 by Charlotte Newman, the first female master jeweler in what was then an exclusively male jewelry industry in England; an Australian black opal brooch designed for Tiffany in the early 20th century by Louis Comfort Tiffany; 17th-century silver crosses owned by the imperial family of Russian Tsar Nicholas II; and more.
Newark, site of the museum exhibition, is a particularly fitting locale, since 90 percent of American gold jewelry was made there for more than 100 years, according to the museum release. American luxury retailers including Tiffany and Cartier stocked fine jewelry made in Newark, the release said.
“It’s certainly fitting that The Newark Museum hosts this exhibition,” Ulysses Grant Dietz, Newark Museum Curator of Decorative Arts, said in the statement. “We are one of the few museums in the United States with a focus on collecting jewelry as part of the design and decorative arts collections.”
In addition to the ongoing exhibition, Objects of Desire will be the subject of a July 10 symposium, a daylong event addressing American jewelers and the country’s passion for jewelry. Speakers will include Dietz; Yvonne Markowitz, Curator of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Jeannine Falino, former Curator of Decorative Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The sessions, co-sponsored by the Society of Jewelry Historians, are $45 for the full day ($35 for members) or $25 each for the morning or afternoon session.
For more information, visit: www.newarkmuseum.org
