“Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection,” At Cooper Hewitt

Fall Exhibition Brings 150 Avant-Garde Works to the Public, Showcasing the Limitless Potential of Jewelry Design   “Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection,” opening Nov. 17, celebrates the recent gift from the renowned collector to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. On view through May 28, 2018, the exhibition, co-curated by Ursula Ilse-Neuman and Cooper Hewitt, features 150 brooches, necklaces, bracelets and rings, and traces radical developments in jewelry from the mid-20th century to the present. Works on view highlight jewelry design’s expressive and innovative achievements, ranging from works that make a political statement by eschewing silver and gold for industrial materials, to pieces that employ found materials to tell a personal narrative. “It is with much gratitude that Cooper Hewitt has accepted this collection of modern and contemporary jewelry from a champion of the field,” said Caroline Baumann, director of the museum. “The Susan Grant Lewin Collection significantly expands the range and depth of Cooper Hewitt’s jewelry holdings to encompass the inventive approach of the studio jewelry movement and the impact of later groundbreaking conceptual and materials-driven contemporary jewelry design.” The exhibition captures the diversity and achievement of modern and contemporary jewelry designers from Holland, Japan, Israel, the United States and elsewhere. Many of the pieces confront social, political or personal concerns using unconventional materials and techniques. Contained within a ring may be a history of the mathematical proportions of the Palladian villas of the Veneto, as in the case of Giampaolo Babetto. Within a bracelet may be a rejection of the cult of the precious, as seen in Otto Künzli’s “Gold Makes You Blind,” where an 18-karat gold ball is encased in a rubber bangle. “I have been collecting jewelry for decades and it only becomes more exciting as the field of conceptual jewelry design continues to flourish,” said Susan Grant Lewin. “I meet designers from around the world, so the collection is international in scope. I like to find the leaders and innovators—the most experimental jewelry designers—and I am thrilled that Cooper Hewitt is exposing their revolutionary work to the general public.” Highlights of the works on view include: Intricate beading by 2016 MacArthur Fellow Joyce Scott, who depicts moments of sexism and racism and calls attention to their engendered violence A silver and acrylic kinetic ring by Friedrich Becker, 1993, designed to axially rotate in response to the gestures of the hand that wears it Ted Noten’s rejection of habituation and embrace of the unexpected, as seen in his 2003 pendant necklace, “Fred,” which encases a fly and a pearl in his signature cast acrylic Kiff Slemmons’ narrative necklaces, including her 2008 piece, “Reliquary of My Own Making,” constructed of photographs that document her design process The tongue-in-cheek, conceptual smoking instrument, “Manhattan Piece,” 1987, by Otto Künzli; a tubular design allows the wearer to exhale cigarette smoke through a brooch or button Pioneering assemblage pieces that were the first to make curious whimsy out of the everyday, such as Ramona Solberg’s 1989 necklace featuring two dominos on a leather cord Brooches and body ornamentation by American jewelry pioneer Arline Fisch, who applies an innovative technique of weaving metal Abstract, painterly brooches from Thomas Gentille, who uses materials such as gold-flecked bronze, aluminum and eggshell inlay A necklace made of coal and recycled paper feathers from Attai Chen’s “Compounding Fractions” series, 2010, which portrays decay as delicately beautiful Work by Jamie Bennett, whose gold and enamel brooches act as canvases for abstract imagery reminiscent of vegetal Persian tapestries or paintings by Joan Miró “Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection” is made possible in part by the Rotasa Fund, Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG), Gallery Loupe, Sienna Patti, Helen W. Drutt English, and Kim and Al Eiber. Public Programming The exhibition will include a series of programs and workshops that explore topics in contemporary jewelry and how designers have revolutionized the field, including a two-panel afternoon symposium (Nov. 17), a jewelry workshop (Nov. 18) and a Tea and Talk with prominent jewelry collectors (Dec. 12). For a complete roster of events, visit cooperhewitt.org/events. Publication An accompanying 176-page publication, with an essay by Ilse-Neuman, will be published by Cooper Hewitt and distributed domestically by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. and internationally by Arnoldsche Art Publishers. Featuring hundreds of full-color illustrations, the catalog will explore the groundbreaking techniques and materials used by over 100 world-class jewelry designers, with their accompanying process statements. Retail price: $40. Jewelry of Ideas: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection is made possible in part by the Rotasa Fund, Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG), Gallery Loupe, Sienna Patti, William P. Short III, in memory of Nancy Jean Fulop Short, Helen W. Drutt English, and Kim and Al Eiber. This publication is made possible in part by the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Publications Fund.

ABOUT COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM Founded in 1897, Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. Housed in the renovated and restored Carnegie Mansion, Cooper Hewitt showcases one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence. The museum’s restoration, modernization and expansion has won numerous awards and honors, including a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a Gold Pencil Award for Best in Responsive Environments and LEED Silver certification. Cooper Hewitt offers a full range of interactive capabilities and immersive creative experiences, including the Cooper Hewitt Pen that allows visitors to “collect” and “save” objects from around the galleries, the opportunity to explore the collection digitally on ultra-high-definition touch-screen tables, and draw and project their own wallpaper designs in the Immersion Room. Cooper Hewitt is located at 2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue in New York City. Hours are Sunday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden and Tarallucci e Vino cafe open at 8 a.m., Monday through Friday, and are accessible without an admissions ticket through the East 90th Street entrance. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Public transit routes include the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 subways (86th or 96th Street stations), the Second Avenue Q subway (96th Street station), and the Fifth and Madison Avenue buses. Adult admission, $16 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $18 at door; seniors, $10 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $12 at door; students, $7 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $9 at door. Cooper Hewitt members and children younger than age 18 are admitted free. Pay What You Wish every Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. The museum is fully accessible.

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Scraps at The Cooper Hewitt Museum

We are visiting the gorgeous Cooper Hewitt Museum, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum, for a very colorful exhibit. 

Information on this exhibit from the Cooper Hewitt website: 

Scraps are full of potential. They are the raw materials used to fulfill both practical and creative endeavors—a patch on a pair of jeans or the makings of a cherished quilt. Yet the industrial equivalent of household scraps—remnants from yarn, textile, and clothing production—clog landfills in the United States and around the world. The textile and apparel industries are among the most polluting in the world, second only to oil. How can we rethink the design and production process in order to recover waste materials before they impact the environment? Can textile waste become even higher value textile products?

Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse focuses on three designers who use textile scraps as the creative impetus for their work: Luisa Cevese, founder of Riedizioni in Milan, Italy, Christina Kim, founder of the Los Angeles-based fashion brand dosa, and Reiko Sudo, managing director of Japanese textile company NUNO. All three share a deep respect for the history and tradition of textile making, and a commitment to design’s environmental, social, and economic responsibilities. Cevese is attracted to the beautiful silk selvedges that are castoffs from industrial silk manufacturing and turns them into coveted fashion accessories. Kim’s deep respect for India’s handweavers inspired her to develop a design process for using up scraps over several fashion seasons. Sudo’s deep exploration of traditional silk production in Japan led to transforming silk waste into textiles with greater creative relevance. Each designer finds it both aesthetically and financially worthwhile to recycle while striving to sustain traditional textile practices and skills in a modern world.

I really loved the bag that was made from the scraps. It was ultra cool ! 

This exhibition was on display from September 23, 2016 to April 16, 2017.

2 East 91st Street
New York, NY

See on Map 

www.cooperhewitt.org

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and Sundays
Saturdays 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Closed Thanksgiving and December 25

Adults - $18 | Seniors $12 | Students $9 | Members and 18 and under free
Buy your tickets online to save $2 per ticket.

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The Jazz Age Part 2 Cooper Hewitt Museum

If you like jewels, you will love this part of the exhibit. The Jazz Age is going on at The Cooper Hewitt museum until August 20th 2017. I would say run, don't walk, to this one. It is a stellar exhibit from this classic museum! 

 A nice little necklace 

 I really love art deco jewelry which begins in the 1920's 

The size of these stones is just unreal 

Necklace, 1929; Produced by Van Cleef & Arpels (Paris, France); Platinum, carved rubies, diamonds; L: 41.3 cm (16 1/4 in.); The Adrien Labi Collection; Photo: Siegelson, New York

This jewelry makes you speechless 

This jewelry was inside a glass case, so I was very happy with how good these shots came out. This bracelet is just so elegant. 

This would make a great coat or purse accent! 

I was really blown away by these pieces! 

An ultimate necklace for a lady 

Such a cool chair! 

Chanel No. 5 debuted in 1921 

Everything here was in such great condition, I always want to keep my perfume bottles, but end up throwing them away in the end. I need more room for the new bottles! 

This was one heck of a display for perfume! 

Everyone needs a tiara. 

These bracelets are just everything. 

Be sure to check out this exhibit before it closes on August 20th. You will really enjoy it and be totally amazed at so many gorgeous items in one place! 

THROUGH AUGUST 20, 2017

A multi-media experience of more than 400 examples of interior design, industrial design, decorative art, jewelry, fashion, and architecture, as well as related music and film, The Jazz Age gives full expression to the decade’s diversity and dynamism.

Learn more about The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.


MUSEUM AND SHOP HOURS
Weekdays and Sundays, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

CAFE AND GARDEN HOURS

The garden will closed Monday, June 26, through Tuesday, June 27, at noon. We regret the inconvenience.

Weekdays, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Sundays, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

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