As you are reading this, thousands of solitary silversmiths are plying their art at studio work benches everywhere, sculpting wearable art one soul-rending piece at a time. It's always been that way and the machine age changed nothing for the hands that coax metal into exquisite compliance.
The '40's remain the most prolific years for designers and metal smiths producing modernist, counter culture jewelry, mostly silver.
It was in fact an international movement back then, from New York to Taxco to Copenhagen and beyond. After Japan was devastated by WWII, some of the first signs of new hope were Japanese designers who ventured out into modernist directions in jewelry making.
These photographs tell a little about the Greenwich Village studios, the men and the jewelry. Sam Kramer and Art Smith. I wish I'd been there 70 years ago, on Ginsberg's and Bob Dylan's turf, buying up jewelry I can only see in museums today.
No comments:
Post a Comment