VAN CLEEF & ARPELS is also opening its largest “heritage exhibition” to date, at Singapore’s ArtScience Museum this Saturday.
“Van Cleef & Arpels: The Art & Science of Gems” is being touted as Southeast Asia’s first and largest gem exhibition, with more than 400 stunning creations currently available, on loan from private collectors, or resurrected from the archives. There are also 250 mineral samples from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
The show fulfils a long-held goal, says president and chief executive Nicolas Bos. “Since the very early days, our purpose has been to bring the world of jewellery and the creative arts to a wider audience.”
ArtScience Museum director Honor Harger says the show is unique in the way it explores artistic skill as well as scientific processes, including the way minerals are formed.
“The exhibition takes visitors on a dramatic journey that begins with the origin of minerals within the heart of the Earth and culminates with the extraordinary craftsmanship that transfigures these gems into works of art,” she says.
There are seven themes – Couture, Abstractions, Influences, Precious Objects, Nature, Ballerinas and Fairies, and Icons. Visitors can choose one of two pathways through the exhibits, one focused on the minerals and the other on the jewellery.
Bruno David of the Museum of Natural History would no doubt recommend the former. “We have rare minerals with strange names such as corindon, tourmaline and pyroxen – these are the raw materials for jewellery makers. An exhibition like this where the paths of science and art cross is the place to collaborate in the hybrid field we could call ‘geo-jewellery’.”
One of the most striking custom orders Van Cleef & Arpels has ever received was for a flying bird carrying a briolette-cut yellow diamond of nearly 97 carats. In the 1930s it belonged to opera singer Ganna Walska, who wore it as a pendant, but the firm loves to make items that adapt, so the bird can also be worn as earrings or a brooch. The diamond detaches from its clip.
The exhibition runs until August 14 at the ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.