The Association of Icelandic Goldsmiths celebrated its 90 year anniversary last October, and the Icelandic Museum of Design and Applied Art held the anniversary exhibition, Prýði, to mark the occasion.

Author: Harpa Þórsdóttir / photographer Íris Stefánsdóttir

The exhibition ran from October 18, 2014, to January 25, 2015. The display format was unconventional in that the items on show were selected not by a curator but by the craftsmen themselves, with all association members invited to send in examples of their work. The exhibition thus provided an excellent opportunity to reflect upon the current state of the Icelandic gold & silversmith trade. The decision to allow goldsmiths to choose their own creations for display is a more open approach than placing the choice in the hands of a curator or selection committee. This gave younger goldsmiths the perfect opportunity to step forward…

Orri Finn

…Despite the fact that Icelandic gold & silversmithing have a long and rich history, we don’t seem to have created the conditions that would allow goldsmiths with the requisite talent and ambition to branch out and move in greater numbers into artistic jewelry making and design. The exhibition, in the Icelandic Museum of Design and Applied Art, left no doubt that there are many Icelandic goldsmiths who deserve to have their work honored and acclaimed. Dutch art historian Marjan Unger stated at a 2012 conference in Munich that raising of awareness regarding jewelry making was widely needed. As an aesthete and an art lover, she said that she was taking an active stance with the designers whose pieces she wore. She familiarized herself with their talents and sources of inspiration, and bought jewelry with that knowledge in mind (often being the first one to do so), and also collected pieces by those designers. Unger has, for example, given Rijksmuseum in The Netherlands part of her private collection, and has helped pave the way for designers, artists and goldsmiths. In her speech at the conference in Munich she encouraged audience members to do the same…

Read the full article in the first issue of HA magazine.

Cosmo Asimov eftir Rúnar Jóhannesson