“This article first appeared in Metalsmith. Metalsmith is published by the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG), www.snagmetalsmith.org.”

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THE BOARDMAN FAMILY COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY

by JO LAURIA

Lois Boardman didn’t acknowledge herself as a collector until recently, even though she had gathered more than 300 significant pieces of contemporary jewelry. Fond of referring to herself as an “accumulator,” Boardman had to accept that she was labeled a “serious collector” in a field that was be­ing revalued in the art world, claiming new converts within the museum community, and welcoming other enthusiastic supporters and collectors. Her epiphany was sparked by several key events, including the development of the Art Jewelry Forum collectors’ group over the past decade; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s acquisition and 2007 exhibition of the Daphne Farago jewelry collection; and the announced plans to tour the current exhibition of the Helen Williams Drutt Collection of contemporary jewelry by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Boardman now realized it was time to admit to her “serious folly,” and start the daunting process of documenting her accumulations, cataloguing works that have been clos­eted from the field, some for more than 20 years. In this effort, she looked to the advice and example of her mentor, friend, and confidante, Helen Drutt.

“FOLLOW YOUR NOSE. LIKE IT, WEAR IT, LEND IT. EITHER YOU GET IT, OR YOU DON’T.” - Lois Boardman on collecting

Boardman and Drutt have a shared history in the arts dating back to the early 1980s, when both served as volunteers of the National Task Force in the Crafts, a team of 32 volunteers enlisted by Eudorah Moore, then Craft Coordinator of the National Endowment for the Arts. The volunteers were trained to gather pertinent information about crafts from every region in the United States.

During the one-year term, Boardman and Drutt were frequently paired as roommates. Hailing from Southern California, Boardman had studied ceramics under Ralph Bacerra at Chouinard Art Institute, directed programs for the Pasadena Art Museum, and assumed the directorship of the California Design Exhibition Series, replacing Moore. Drutt founded the Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia in 1974, spe­cializing in the crafts, and became recognized as an expert and activist in the field. Their pairing was portentous and serendipitous. Boardman remembers: “Helen was, at all times, wearing an intriguing piece of jewelry; a clever way to initiate conversation. Helen felt that as long as she was selling it, she had an obligation to be its best promoter. Her avant-garde taste in jewelry—and commitment to wearing it; her vast knowledge of the field; and her close relationships with jewelers from every continent piqued my interest and eventually led me down the ruinous path of collecting. I am indebted to Helen for expos­ing me to the field of contemporary jewelry, and for all the fun and wonder I’ve had pursuing this adven­ture.”

And thus began a lifelong friendship, a kinship bound by their mutual appreciation, dedication, and abso­lute pursuit of acquiring and collecting jewelry of their time. Since then, Boardman has learned about the field from Drutt and other esteemed dealers; she has joined support groups and attended conferences to advance her connoisseurship; and has sought out artists in their studios and attended their exhibitions to stay nimble and informed. She tries not to buy into labels, or succumb to status or copycat acquisitions. Instead, she relies on her “trained eyes” to judge a piece on its own merits rather than looking to others for validation. Further, she has vowed to follow her nose, sniffing out the unusual, the edgy, the experi­mental, and frequently the disturbing. Consider Elizabeth Kadre Defner’s 1983 neckpiece, Rat’s Skull, featuring a golden cast of a rodent’s cranium; Sebastian Buescher’s 2006 brooch, Pregnant Tree Boy, which encapsulates black widow spiders under glass; Georg Dobler’s outrageous 1999 necklace sport­ing oversized cast silver scarabs clustered around a huge gemstone (which Boardman insists she has worn to Costco); Susie Ganch’s 1999 headdress, Static Orbital Model #3 (Menorah), wherein the wearer’s head is encircled by an orbiting candelabrum; and Nancy Worden’s 2001 neckpiece, Gilding the Past, a not-so-classic commentary on the brutalities of war, comprised of gilded cast chicken bones. And then there are the pieces that reflect Boardman’s quirky sense of humor; for example, Karl Fritsch’s 2005 Ring, which looks like exploding prisms ready to launch into space off of Boardman’s finger. These pieces best convey Boardman’s vision and guts in building her collection: she dares to take risks, even if it means risking a mistake.

But it would be misleading to imply that Boardman doesn’t prize pure beauty and wearability. Boardman willingly admits that her favorite material is gold, and her collection contains several stunning examples that are elegant and scaled for wearing. Recently, Italian jewelers of the Padua school, with their con­temporary and experimental approach to using gold, have caught Boardman’s eye. She has newly ac­quired a gold brooch by Graziano Visintin, and a gold and silver brooch by Stefano Marchetti, and in­tends to collect at least one piece from every artist connected with the school.

“CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY COMMUNICATES. IT STARTS UP A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE WEARER AND THE MAKER.” - Lois Boardman

Over 25 years, Boardman has assembled a sophisticated collection of exemplary pieces, representing a broad base of key American and international jewelers, with a concentration of works from a select group of artists whom Boardman collects in depth. To date, the artists in Boardman’s collection who are represented by more than five pieces include: Peter Chang, Breon O’Casey, and Wendy Ramshaw (British); Sharon Church, Helen Shirk, and Nancy Worden (American); and Georg Dobler, Mi­chael Becker, and Karl Fritsch (German). Taut, personal, and vital, this collection speaks about the jewelers of our time: the search for an expressive language that reflects both individual knowledge and universal experience; the cultural movements and changing zeitgeist; and the arc of technology and advances in materials and processes. In essence, these works are a currency of our contempo­rary culture, and offer the potential to increase awareness and understanding of the creative development of individ­ual jewelers, as well as the evolving history of the studio jewelry movement as it transitions from adolescence to maturity.

From a curatorial point of view, the Boardman Family Collection has all the hallmarks of a considerable public collection: the range and diversity of the objects confirm long-term commitment and expansive reach; the thoughtful accumulation of works over time, often representing early, middle, and late periods of an artist’s oeuvre, provides depth; and the strategic inclusion of works that correspond to the defining moments of an epoch, render this collection of contemporary works aesthetically sound, historically sig­nificant, and worthy of attention.

In the interest of history, Boardman is ready to fling the doors wide and bring the Boardman Family Col­lection from its private domain into the public arena. As a dedicated collector, Boardman delights in car­ing for and preserving these objects, and lending them to important exhibitions. And most importantly, by daring to wear pieces from her collection at any occasion, Boardman has helped to raise awareness and appreciation of contemporary jewelry.

JO LAURIA is an author and independent curator of decorative arts and design.

Photographs:

Collector Lois Boardman wearing GERD ROTHMANN’s 1984 Gold Nose (gold cast Rat’s Skull (neckpiece), 1983 made from a mold of Boardman’s nose)

ELIZABETH KADRE DEFNER Rat’s Skull (neckpiece), 1983 fine and white gold, opal, hair, wood, emer­ald, ruby 7 1/2 x 6” Photo: Anthony Cuñha

GRAZIANO VISINTIN Brooch, 2003 gold 2 x 2” Photo: Anthony Cuñha

KARL FRITSCH Ring, 2005 patinated silver, glass stones height 3” Photo: Anthony Cuñha

NANCY WORDEN Gilding the Past, 2001 silver, copper, brass, gold, coral, bone, turquoise length 43” Photo: Rex Rystedt

This year noted collector Donna Schneier gave a substantial part of her contemporary jewelry collection to the Metropolitan Museum. Jane Adlin, Met Associate Curator, is collaborating with Donna on an upcoming exhibition and a publication devoted to Donna’s gift. They kindly shared some jewelry thoughts with Susan Cummins in our August interview.

Susan: Donna, why did you decide to give this part of your collection to the Met? I understand that you gave work from the 80’s to MAD, which made up the “Zero Carat” show and some other work to the Racine Museum of Art? How did you decide what should go where?

Donna: The initial collection was hung in my office building when I was importing gold jewelry in the late 70’s until the early 90’s and selling to large volume users. The object at that time was to demonstrate to the buyers that there were other forms of body adornment. (They didn’t get it.) That collection turned out to have documented the jewelry revolution of the 60’s, 70,s and 80’s. When the business was sold I felt that these works never to be seen again in the marketplace should be donated to a museum. I was an active participant at MAD, they were interested in the collection so it seemed the logical place to exhibit the work. It was only non-precious work, hence the name Zero Carat.

Always the hunter gatherer I decided to concentrate on precious metal jewelry. However, I missed some of the works I had donated so I filled in some of Kunzli’s work, the work of Gijs Bakker and a few others in non-precious.

When, after 50 years I left my beloved N.Y.C. for Florida I wanted to leave a legacy to the city. In conversation with Jane Adlin at the Met she expressed an interest in the collection. It was a difficult decision because of my affiliation with MAD but when I realized that the Met is the ultimate imprimatur there seemed to be no choice but to donate it to the Met.

The donation to Racine was work that would compliment work already in their collection. I have a history of donating works to many museums and will continue to do so.

Susan: Jane, how does the Donna’scollection fit into the holdings of the Met?

Jane: Donna’s collection of post World War II jewelry continues to tell the story of modern design that begins in this department around the turn of the last century and includes work by important jewelers such as Rene Lalique,Dagobert Peche,Lluis Masriera, unique works by Alexander Calder in the 1940s, and early studio craft jewelers, just to name a few. Her collection will compliment the collection and hopefully will continue to grow through the coming years.

Two works from Donna’s collection - a Mary Lee Hu necklace and a brooch by William Harper are currently on view in the exhibition of “Masterpieces of Modern Design, Selections from the Collection”.

Susan: What are your plans for the Schneier collection in the near future?

Jane: There will be an exhibition and publication devoted to Donna’s gift. The date is not yet confirmed.

Susan: Tell us something about your background. Where did you study and what are your special interests?

Donna: I have been a dealer in 20thc painting and sculpture since 1966. In the mid-eighties I realized that there was affordability and growth, both artistic and financial in the five disciplines loosely described as craft, that is, ceramics, glass, fiber, metal (jewelry) and wood. I choose to investigate and sell on the secondary market ceramics, glass, fiber, and wood but to collect jewelry. I occasionally sold jewelry but was more interested in building a collection for myself.

Jane: I grew up in Chicago where I came to love the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright - especially Robie House. Also, the Art Institute (of Chicago)gave me many blissful days of pleasure. I went to Brandeis University and did graduate work at Hunter College (NY) and the Graduate Center (both part of the New York City college system). I started at the Metropolitan in late 1986 as a part-time researcher and have been here ever since. My art history background was in the fine arts but the research job I applied for was with the (former) curator of modern design and architecture. Currently, I’m Associate Curator, Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern & Contemporary Art at the Met.

Susan: How would you describe your own personal taste in jewelry?

Donna: I do not have personal taste in jewelry. My goal was to document as best I could the significant artists and movements in the field of contemporary jewelry irrespective of my likes and dislikes. When considering a work I asked myself what contribution the artist had made to the movement and whether that work was of importance to the artist’s contribution.

Jane: Personally, I am eclectic. I like old, new, serious, humorous, precious and non-precious. It just has to “speak to me”.

Susan: What impact do you hope to have on the contemporary jewelry field with this gift to the Met?

Donna: The impact on the contemporary jewelry movement is untold. No museum is more important. After the exhibition and the book they plan for 2011 the impact should be huge. It will put this movement on the 20c art history map as nothing else could.

Susan: Who are some of the artists that you feel are outstanding in your collection overall?

The jury is still out. The outstanding works in my collection are the masters in the field, that is, Junger, Kunzli, Gentile, Hu, Harper, Metcalf, and 125 others to numerous to mention here.

Susan: Are you still collecting similar work?

Donna: As there are many “holes” in the collection I donated to the Met it looks like I will be purchasing works for them to fill in the blanks.

Susan: Our members certainly are looking forward to seeing the collection at the Met and appreciate your all you have done as a patrons of contemporary art jewelry. Thank you both.