Though beautiful jewellery pieces made with precious stones can at times be a bit too classic, aimed at showing the value of the stones that they incorporate rather than at highlighting the personality of the wearer.
Prompted by this reason and bored by the offer on the market, Suzanne Syz, born in Zurich and educated in Paris, decided to start designing jewellery in mid-1990s with one main aim, creating whimsical and unique pieces. It took her quite a few years to find her path and the key to success, but eventually she got there.
Suzanne Syz: Art Jewels, a brand new book published by Assouline tells the story of her career through an interview by art critic Nicolas Trembley organised in an alphabet format. The book moves from the first piece she made, a ring with a frog sitting in a large crown, an instant success with a Pop Art twist.
Contemporary art movements such as Pop Art are actually the key to understand Syz's success: together with her husband Eric, Syz has been collecting works by contemporary artists and photographers from the '80s on, often becoming a close friends of some of them: as a young woman in Paris she modelled for Guy Bourdin, while her relationships with creative spirits such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Francesco Clemente, influenced her designs (Barbara Kruger, Rosemarie Trockel, Monika Sprüth, Elaine Sturtevant also get a mention in the volume).
The best thing about this Assouline book is exactly this aspect: in the interview Syz talks about her passion and her will to inject a much needed dose of humour into her jewellery, and her thoughts are illustrated using juxtapositions of her designs and of artworks from The Syz Collection.
A picture of Carsten Holler's "Giant Triple Mushroom" follows an image of a mushroom-shaped brooch while the bright colours of George Condo's "Big Red" painting call to mind the vibrant heart-shaped pendants of her “Kiss Me/Love Me” earrings.
In the book Syz states she loves contemporary art because it represents a mirror of the society we're living in, this is also the main reason why her showroom is a mix of haute joaillerie and modern artworks. Rather than being showcased in fashion-related spaces, her collections are also usually presented in proper art galleries such as Hauser & Wirth in London, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and Marianne Boesky in New York.
The Geneva-based designer is inspired in her creations by nature, childhood fairy tales, art, and travels, the best compositions remain those ones that feature unconventional materials and bold colours or those suspended between art/fashion and technology such as the jewellery made in elastic titanium thread (a material used in medical proecedures) that can fit any wrist and be worn as a necklace as well or an aqua green titanium dragon bracelet made by a team of different craftsmen each specialised in this material.
The best stories included instead involve famous contemporary artists: one is about the time she commissioned a self-portrait to Andy Warhol, but things went terribly wrong and she even dared telling Warhol she wasn't happy with the results.
There is one final connection to highlight between Syz's design and art: none of her pieces is produced twice, but these are one-of-a-kind creations to conform with the notions of exclusivity and rarity of the art world.There are two weak points in the volume: it would have been interesting to know more about the Geneva-based workshop where the pieces are actually made and about the artisans working for her (just a few pictures aren't enough...), plus, at the very end, the book becomes a bit of an advert for Syz's La Fattoria di Caspri wines. Syz owns indeed a farm in Tuscany and her viticultural passion also inspired necklaces with wine grape leaves. As a whole this volume is otherwise beautifully packaged and should make the contemporary art and haute joaillerie fans genuinely happy.
Suzanne Syz: Art Jewels will be published in April 2013 by Assouline.
Image credits:
2. Pièce Unique n°11: Prince Charming ring. © Denis Hayoun, Diode SA
3. Pièce Unique n°271: Kiss Me Love Me earrings. © Philippe Fragnière
4. Pièce Unique n° 203: Life Savers earrings
5. Pièce Unique n°253: Smarties All Over necklace. Courtesy of Suzanne Syz
6. Pièce Unique n°247: Smarties ring
7. Pièce Unique n° 166: Girouettes earrings
8. Pièce Unique n° 356: Dragon of the Year bracelet
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