A matter of faith
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The Fascination of Jewellery
7000 Years of Jewellery Art at the MAKK
With The Fascination of Jewellery, the Cologne Museum of Applied Arts will be opening the first comprehensive exhibition of its outstanding jewellery collection. Featuring some 370 selected exhibits, seven millennia of jewellery art will be presented in all their various facets, ranging from ancient oriental gems from the 5th millennium BC through to contemporary jewellery.
The concept developed by the curators Petra Hesse and Lena Hoppe envisages a combination of chronological as well as cross-epochal and cross-cultural content such as symbolism, memory, luxury, conventions, gender and identity. The different subjects allow diverse and individual approaches to the field of jewellery art. By way of examples, they provide an introduction to the many facets of jewellery design and offer insights into the social, societal, emotional and symbolic aspects of jewellery.
With around 1,700 pieces, the MAKK's jewellery collection spans a period of 7,000 years – which is what makes it so unique and diverse. The particular focal points are the works from antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century.
Elisabeth Treskow, perhaps the most renowned 20th century goldsmith, who lives and works in Cologne, donated her collection of antique gems and her study collection of antique jewellery to the MAKK. Her own work, which reintroduced the ancient technique of granulation into the art of jewellery, is also represented in the collection.
The 19th century – one of the richest periods in European jewellery – is represented with works by Lucien Falize, Jules Wièse, Eugène Fontenay, Carlo Giuliano and the Castellani brothers, among others.
Numerous other goldsmiths and jewellery artists of the 20th and 21st centuries are also represented in the collection, including René Lalique, Karl Gustav Hansen, Raymond Templier, Hildegard Risch, Ebbe Weiss-Weingart, Friedrich Becker, Emmy van Leersum, Peter Skubic, Falko Marx, Wendy Ramshaw, Peter Chang, Dieter Roth, E. R. Nele, Johanna Dahm, David Bielander, Annamaria Zanella, Svenja John, Karen Pontoppidan and Sam Tho Duong.
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