metalwork

Like many jewelry companies in Europe and America, Adolph Scott Ltd. Birmingham, jewellers of England, sold not only personal jewelry of all kinds, but many other objects made from metals and silver. They sold pocket and wristwatches, many types of bracelets, brooches, religious medals, and rings. This catalog features cigarette cases, eyeglass frames, mirrors and compacts, calling and business card cases, chain bags and purses, cigarette holders, flasks and silver baby rattles, even gold and silver safety pins.

Sirarpie Der Nersessian (1896-1989) was an Armenian art historian. Born in Istanbul, she fled in 1915 to escape the persecutions that had erupted against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. She lived for a time in Switzerland, then moved to Paris in 1919, where she obtained a graduate degree at the Sorbonne. By the mid-20th century, she was living in Washington D.C., working as a scholar at Dumbarton Oaks. In 1963, she published a book on the Freer Gallery of Art’s Armenian Gospel manuscript folios.

Published in 1989 by Trio, Secrets of Ancient Gold is a translation of Christiane Eluère’s Secrets de l’or Antique. Rich in color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations, Secrets is an accessible introduction which delves into the history of art created in gold, the artists who worked with it, and the methods they used. A French historian specializing in Celtic metalwork, Eluère currently works for the Museum of National Antiquities in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Searching for a book on the history of metals? Then look no further than John Wadsworth William Sullivan’s The Story of Metals. Published in 1951 by the American Society of Metals as part of the Series for Self-Education, The Story of Metals offers an accessible glimpse into the evolution of the use of metals from mining to metallurgy and minting.

This exhibition catalog explores the 2010 monumental work Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, created by internationally acclaimed contemporary Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The work is a reimagining of a Qing dynasty zodiac water-clock system at the Old Summer Palace near Beijing, which was looted in 1850 during the Second Opium War. Ai reinterpreted the original fountainheads in a gold series and a bronze series, as his first monumental public art installation.

David Rickard gives gold’s poor relation the royal treatment in this scholarly work on the mineral pyrite. Rickard presents both the social uses of pyrite—from historical accounts—and the scientific nature of the mineral. Whether a scientist is researching the history of an older piece of metalwork or the chemical properties of the raw material, Rickard’s work is useful for the scholar and layman alike. This nicely illustrated book is from the Minerals Library at the National Museum of Natural History.

One of the best-known artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet, and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Picasso is often remembered for his cubist paintings, but he continued to experiment with new styles and materials throughout his life. During the 1950s and 1960s, Picasso commissioned Francois Hugo, great-grandson of French writer Victor Hugo, to execute a series of plates, dishes, and medallions in gold and silver. The plates were modeled after Picasso’s original ceramics designs.

Whether through direct influences or broader affinities, African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American objects undoubtedly informed the practice of Western artists throughout the 20th century. This catalog, from the inaugural show at New York’s Pace Primitive Gallery, juxtaposes body objects from African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American cultures with jewelry by Alexander Calder, Ernest Trova, Louise Nevelson, and Pablo Picasso.

The works of Lucas Samaras can be understood through one unifying principle: the artist’s “natural instinct for subversion.” Rather than springing from an urge to rebel, however, Samaras’ originality and nonconformity are centered in treating art as a mutable subject. Samaras spent two years crafting gold jewelry, modeling them first in chicken wire, then casting them in solid 22-karat gold.