Paul Mergen refers to copper as “the mother metal.” From his early career, he used copper subversively, as a low material, perhaps precluding himself from early recognition. The premier works of Mergen’s early jewelry combined forging, repoussé, and piercing to achieve contrast in form, visual weight, and texture. These are archetypal works for their time, and it is from this origin—at the center of the coalescing American metalsmithing academy—that Mergen departs, moving toward esoteric interests and developing his artistic inquiry.
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