De Calder à Koons, bijoux d'artistes. La collection idéale de Diane Venet

From Alexander Calder to Jeff Koons and ranging from Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Niki de Saint Phalle to César, Takis and Louise Bourgeois, a host of modern and contemporary artists have taken a close interest in jewellery. Diane Venet, who has collected artist’s jewellery for more than thirty years, is sharing her passion for these miniature artworks that often echo the artist’s formal language. Her collection of some 230 pieces, complemented by exceptional loans from galleries, collectors and the artists’ families, chronologically and thematically illustrates the work of 150 French and foreign artists. 

The exhibition begins with avant-garde artists who have explored the realm of the “Portrait”. Picasso, fascinated by the sculptural potential of two-dimensional materials, explored this theme with great economy of means, while Derain translated his admiration for Benin in his “bijoutées” bronze heads. The provocative ideas of the Surrealists are evoked in the “Dream and Fantasy” section, with Man Ray’s perforated mask, the jewellery of Salvador Dalí, and the dreamlike universes of Jean Cocteau and Léonor Fini.The exhibition continues with a more transversal and resolutely contemporary vision of jewellery in “Metamorphoses of Nature.” This naturalist vein is explored by Lowell Nesbitt with a focus on flowers and by Giuseppe Penone with the imprint of his hand on gold leaf. The “Memento mori” or vanitas is evoked by Wim Delvoye, who questions religious beliefs in his crucifix pendants in the form of a Möbius band. “Colour” is illustrated by Grayson Perry’s transpositions of his female avatars into jewellery and ceramics, while Niki de Saint Phalle recreates the powerful, playful images of her famous Nanas on a minute scale.

The major modern and contemporary movements are also represented. Abstract art is illustrated by Fausto Melotti and Lucio Fontana’s lacerated monochrome surfaces, which are converted into bracelets. Pop Art, ranging from Roy Lichtenstein to Robert Rauschenberg, humorously and ironically depicts “the American way of life”, while the compressions and accumulations of the Nouveaux Réalistes César and Arman play on the symbols of consumerism. Pol Bury evokes Kinetic Art by incorporating mobile elements into his jewellery, and Takis formulates original ideas on magnetism.

Minimal and Conceptual art are represented by the unique rings that Sol LeWitt created for his daughters, and Pierrette Bloch’s timeless creations infinitely duplicate her motifs. The exhibition culminates with the very active contemporary British scene, spearheaded in the 1990s by the highly provocative Young British Artists such as Damien Hirst and the Chapman brothers. The wider international scene is also present with jewellery by Erwin Wurm and Ai Weiwei. French jewellers are also represented, by Claude Lévêque and Jean-luc Moulène, both of whom created novel pieces at Diane Venet’s request.

Non-exhaustive, subjective, poetic and impulsive, this exhibition reflects the history of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Diane Venet’s passion for creation: many-faceted, playful and demanding.