Works by internationally acclaimed jewelry artist Arline
Fisch are featured in the exhibition Elegant Fantasy: The
Jewelry of Arline Fisch. The exhibition is a retrospective of 60 works
created over the 40-year career of one of the leaders of the
modern art jewelry movement.
The first exhibition to explore the full range of designs and
techniques employed in Fisch’s innovative work, Elegant
Fantasy: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch features jewelry and
decorative objects in silver, gold and non-precious metals
from the San Diego Historical Society and the artist’s
private collection, as well a several pieces from the
collection of the Oakland Museum of California. Included
are a sensuous bracelet of silver and leather attached to
feathers that engulf the hand, an Egyptian-inspired collar
of fine silver woven and pleated to form a face-framing pyramid, and a flat braided silver and gold
square that changes to a sculpted form when draped over the wearer, shaping itself to the body.
In the 1940s, an international art jewelry movement emerged in which artists and jewelers changed the
definition of jewelry from mere ornament to art worn close to the body, and questioned the primacy of
precious materials and traditional jewelry techniques. Arline Fisch has been one of the most visible and
influential forces in this movement, pioneering the application of textile techniques to sculptural work
in metal and creating dramatic, large-scale bodysculptures that push the boundaries between jewelry
and dress. Her integration of weaving, knitting, crocheting and braiding of metal into the creation of
jewelry, creating metal that acts like cloth, was a groundbreaking technique that has become standard
among her contemporaries. Her work includes breastplates of hammered silver plaques,
full-body-length stoles of knitted wire, and Jacobean collars of metal lace, as well as more delicate
pieces employing feathers, press-formed colored metal flowers, and fine silver wire. Fisch has said of
her work, I make jewelry and/or adornments which have dramatic impact, personal objects to be worn
which enhance and exalt the wearer. I use forms which relate to the human body and are comfortable to
wear, using both precious and non-precious materials.
Fisch received a bachelor’s degree in studio art from
Skidmore College and a master’s in art from the
University of Illinois at Urbana. She is a professor
emeritus at San Diego State University where she founded
the jewelry program and influenced the development of
many contemporary jewelry artists. She is the author of
the seminal book TextileTechniques in Metal for Jewelers,
Textile Artists & Sculptors. Her numerous honors include
four Fulbright Grants, four National Endowment for the
Arts Grants, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the
National Museum of Women in the Arts. Fisch has
exhibited widely in the U.S. and U.K., and her work
appears in collections worldwide, including the Victoria &
Albert Museum in London, the Vatican Museum in Rome,
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Recognized internationally as a leader in contemporary jewelry design, Fisch was named a Living
Treasure of California by the State Assembly in 1985.
A 128-page color illustrated catalog, published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, accompanies the
exhibition.
Public programs in conjunction with Elegant Fantasy:
The Jewelry of Arline Fisch will include lectures by
Fisch and a leading historian of the art jewelry
movement and family events featuring demonstrations
and hands-on exploration of the creation of jewelry in
nontraditional materials.
The exhibition and associated public programs are made possible by the generous support of the Arline
Fisch Exhibition Sponsor Group.
IMAGE:
Collar,
Egyptian Dream, 1996;
Silver, 18k, black onyx, pearls, loom woven, pleated, fabricated
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