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Silver Triennal – An International Exhibition Promoting the Contemporary Art of the Silversmith
CHRISTIANNE WEBER-STÖBER
Chief Executive, Gesellschaft fuer Goldschmiedekunst, Hanau
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Plate ”round acanthus”
Court jeweller H. J. Wilm, Berlin, ca. 1935
Sterling silver
Bröhan-Museum, Berlin
Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 310
Ferdinand Richard Wilm (director of H. J. Wilm 1912–1967) established the ”Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus” 1922 in Berlin and 1942 in Hanau |
Already in 1932, in the year of her foundation, and in the following years, the German Association for Goldsmiths Art in Berlin began to promote the art of silversmithy through competitions and exhibitions. Today we are an international association. The themes of these exhibitions were for example: The silver vessel; 1933: The silver container; 1935/36: Vessel for the Olympian champion;
1942: Silver for the councils of German cities; 1951: A silver municipal plate; 1958/59: The silver coffee pot; 1959: The magic charm of the mirror; 1960: Silver vessel with enamel; 1963: The silver sports award.
In the 60ies, the Association opened for the European countries. 1965 the series of exhibition ”European Silver, hand made”, which was later on known as Silver Triennial, was started in cooperation with the Handwerksform Hannover.
Ulla Stöver, who was at that time manager of the Association, wrote in the first catalogue: ”The renewal of the art of silversmithy began with the consequent adjustment of the surface and intensiv work on the pure shape. Through Werkbund and Bauhaus Germany gained a leading position. The dogma of the 20ies, ”form without ornament”, and the doctrine of the orthodox functionalism, to make the use to the only pre-condition for shaping, was pointed at the sins of the years of rapid expansion, of historism and misunderstood Art Nouveau. It was defined: Form is shape without ornament. But by omitting ornaments, the good form asked for is not automatically obtained, and mere functionalism leaves little margin for creative phantasie. In the process of creating handicraft, function and material are only the law that limits the task set before the artist. Within these limits, the artist is free to create whatever he wants and must.”
From Germany, more than thirty artists showed secular and ecclesiastical silverware. Submissions also came from Great Britain, Scandinavia, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. With the return to a new style distinguished by clear lines and elimination of any decoration whatsoever, the Scandinavians, such as Karl Gustav Hansen, Sigurd Persson and the workshop of Georg Jensen, as well as the British, were at the head of the international competition.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Scandinivians were represented in greater number than the Germans at the second exhibition in 1968, on the theme ”European Silver hand-wrought”.
As three years earlier, forceful modeling, characterized by convincing simplicity prevailed among the northern artists. Silver works were combined with leather, horn, or transparent enamel. The Swede, Heinz Decker, for example, showed a sauce boat with a removeable handle of elkhorn.
The concession to serial production may come as surprise, so the exhibition presented handwrought silver and some objects of serial production. Therefore critical remarks on the exhibited articles were also to be heard. ”The perfection is nearly complete; traces of the processing are carefully erased. Silver hollow and flatware which were once usually one-of-a-kind and practically not reproduceable, are now almost exclusively models for the industry”.
In 1974, the original concept of the Silver Triennial was enlarged with a further aspect: ”it sets out to demonstrate the proximity of the artistically designed one-of-a-kind article to fine art. The framework of the earlier Silver Triennials were expandes intentionally; silver sculpture and objects such as trophies or sport awards were included for the first time.
Three years later, in 1977, the Swedish silversmiths played a prominent role, which can be traced to a great degree to the founding of a work-group of ten silversmiths in Stockholm. Among their most important objectives were the cooperative promotion of individual discoveries and goals, international contacts, and an international prize for a publication in gold and silversmiths’ art.
When the Silver Triennial was organized for the sixth time in 1980, an extremely unfavorable situation dominated the silver market; the price of silver had risen from $ 5 to $ 50 per ounce. This time also, the Scandinavians captured a special spot in the Silver Triennial. In Denmark, leading silversmiths had also joined together in a group, called the ”Danske Solvsmede”. They wanted to demonstrate to the public that in spite of the difficult conditions for subsistance, there were more and more Danish silversmiths making hand-wrought silver hollow and flatware according to their own form conceptions in their workshops. ”All works should be executed by the silversmith himself, from the idea to the finished piece”, is stated in the charter.
The ”Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths” made available the British silversmiths’ masterpieces from their collection. This 800-year-old guild provides an important start-assistance for young gold and silversmiths through the granting of commissions. The purchased works are either included in the collection or donated to churches and universities, for example.
At the Silver Triennial in 1986, nearly twice as much artists participated as in the years past. The use of silver-plated bronze for the first time at the Silver Triennial was rated as an absolute innovation. The large participation unfortunately did not bring with it an equally high quality in the work.
The Silver Triennial of 1989 was a ”remake” of the form dogmas of the Bauhaus: frequently the bodies of the pots were based on the sphere, triangle, or cone; the geometric forms were dissected and rejoined again arbitrarily.
Until this triennial, the 9th performance, the organizers – the Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau and the Association for Goldsmiths Art – chose the pieces for the exhibition. On the occasion of the anniversary of the 10th Silver Triennial 1992, an international competition was announced, a jury chose the prize winners and the participants of the exhibition. 166 artists from 12 countries responded by submitting hollow and flatware or objects in silver to this competition.
This triennial went back to the true purpose of furthering the art of silversmithy. Silver plated objects were not accepted. This ruling stands until today, the submission of silver-plated objects is only permitted for students and apprentices. In 1998 we received more than 300 works. The palette of the submitted silver works has been expanded by a number of pieces. In addition to the classic silverware such as beverage pots, tea and coffee services, place settings, vases, boxes, carafes, trays, warmers, and drinking vessels, many new ideas were realized in silver. Everything from cases for eye glasses, a rice wine bottle, an ensemble for breakfast cereal, a lobster set, a champagne cooler, a picnic set, a cocktail shaker, to a CD box Air Cooled, a secret hiding-place for chewing gum Incognito, or furniture fittings could be found.
This year we organized the 13th Silver Triennial exhibition: Far more than 500 works were submitted by 217 artists from 24 different countries.
This year, the Triennial is creating a new highlight: Ulla and Martin Kaufmann of Hildesheim offered a 5000 ”Deutsch marks” prize to promote the next generation of silver artisans.
Especially among the younger generation, a completely new starting point in the art of the silversmithy is demonstrated by one or the other of the works.The tasks are approached on an intellectual level; the result presents itself as a statement, as a comprehensive artistic endeavor which extends far beyond hand-created silver objects.
A notably high number of participants came from Belgium, where an interesting environment for young silversmiths is developing. Christophe De Ranter of Belgium has been awarded the promotional prize for younger artisans for his ”Dinner”: The work is enlivened by its conceptual idea and demonstrates the meeting point between fine art and applied art. The conceptual work by Christophe De Ranter cannot and should not fundamentally replace or dispute the classic art of the silversmith.
In addition to the Silver Triennial in Hanau, many other events were established in the 90ies, which draw the attention to the international development of the scene of silversmithy.
In1990, the silversmith Jan van Nouhuys from the Netherlands called into life the exhibition ”Zilver in Beweging”. Two years ago, in Schoonhoven (site of the Vakschool Schoonhoven, the most important school in the country and a museum for the art of silversmithy) a gallery for contemporary art of silversmithy was opened. Next year, an international exhibition for silversmithy will be announced there.
1992 the Foundation for Gold- and silversmithy at Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, (Stiftung Gold- und Silberschmiedekunst, Dr. Angelika Ehmer, Franziskanergasse 6, D-73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd) announced a competition titled ”Dinner for Two”.
The Vlaams Institut voor het Zelfstanding ondernemen VIZO in Brüssel organized 1993 in Antwerpen an international exhibition titled ”A Sparkling Party”, which caused furore with its extravagant staging. (VIZO Crafts Department, Johan Valcke, Kandelarijstraat 19, B- 1000 Brüssel).
In Belgium, The Zilverzentrum Antwerpen, joined to the Provinciaal Museum Sterckshof, gained increasing importance in the last years. (Provinciaal Museum Sterckshof, -Zilvercentrum, Hoftvunderlei 160, B-2100 Deurne) In cooperation with the Provinciaal Diamond Museum a design competition for young silversmiths and jewellery designers aged between 20 and 29 was announced in 2000, titled ”Twen in 2000 – Diamond and Silver Creations for the Twenty-First Century”.
The silversmithy workshop titled ”Silver for the table—vessels and utensils” organized 1999 by Gerda and Wilfried Moll in the Center for Culture at Salzau near Kiel, Germany must be also mentioned.
An important promotor for the art of silversmithy since many years is the yearly art fair organized by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg.
Besides the activities already mentioned above, the Worshipful Company also organized in 1999 an important retrospective of the English art of silversmithy titled ”Metalmorphosis - Tradition and Innovation in British Silver and Metalwork from 1880 to 1998”, an exhibition that was also shown in Germany, here in the Bröhan-Museum.
(Worshipful Company, Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane London EC2V 6BN)
Finally I want to finish my statement with some remarks on the Australian and American scene of silversmithy:
The establishment of a gold- and silversmithing workshop at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, in 1948, laid the foundation for an independent Australian development. In 1981, the Canberra School of Art opened a gold and silversmithing workshop. An international symposium in 1988 to coincide with the World Craft Council Conference in Australia was organised by the Canberra School of Art. A meeting of silversmiths under titled ”Concepts and Realisation in Hollow-ware” was included in the symposium.
In the United States, the contemporary art of silversmithy has also an outstanding position. There exists a ”Society of American Silversmiths” which edits an own publication titled ”American Silversmith”. (Society of American Silversmiths, PO Box 3599, Cranston, Rhode Island 0210, USA)
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© 2008 Bröhan-Museum | Bronze-Figur: Agathon Léonard, Danseuse au
bracelet (Tänzerin mit Armband), um 1900, Bronze, goldpatiniert,
Susse Frères, Paris | Abb.: Kaffee- und Teeservice, Maison Cardeilhac,
Paris, um 1890 | Webdesign unicom-berlin.de |
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