An exhibit of the work of Cartier and its Islamic influences
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity, now on view at the Dallas Museum of Art, is unlike other blockbuster shows staged by the museum in many ways. And with such a different show, the questions are different.
Museum Director Agustin Arteaga said he’s long been an admirer of Cartier’s jewelry as an art form. And art it certainly is, as gems have been carved and polished and arranged into forms that dazzle.
But it’s also jewelry, and it was created to be worn. So I couldn’t help but wonder how many armed guards it took to keep DMA Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (and former DVtv host Brad Pritchett) from trying everything on. Several people I spoke to from the museum smiled at the idea and agreed it was tempting.
Also, as I walked through the exhibit. I kept wondering about the value of each of the pieces: diamond studded tiaras or Cartier’s signature tutti fruiti — necklaces or bracelets made of an assortment of colorful gems. Again, not a normal reaction to a pieces in a museum exhibit. I certainly didn’t walk through last year’s Van Gogh show wondering what any of the canvasses cost or which was most expensive.
But this is a fabulous collection of jewelry. And jewelry is meant to be worn. And we can imagine the people who these finely crafted pieces of art were meant to adorn.
OK, so I didn’t take the scholarly approach that the curators of this exhibit took. I simply enjoyed the rich collection of jewelry. But their scholarship wasn’t lost on me.
Cartier and Islamic Art explores the Islamic influence on the work of Cartier in the late 19th and early 20th century. Although the show includes 400 objects, they are arranged in a maze of spotlight galleries that don’t overwhelm with the sheer vast opulence of these pieces.
And the influence of Islamic design is explained in understandable displays both behind glass and blown up and projected on walls with clear explanations.
For example, what became a common design element in Art Deco is the stepped pyramid form. That derives from “angular stepped merlons” found on rooflines of medieval mosques.
And six-, eight- and 12-pointed stars, “a frequent motif on ceramic panels and wood inlay in the Islamic world,” one panel explains, are a design motif used by Cartier designer Owen Jones in a 1907 pendant on display.
Before its only North American stop in Dallas, the exhibit was seen at the Musee des Arts Decoratif in Paris.
Elizabeth Diller, whose studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, designed the interactive animations that magnify and illustrate the pieces, described the two settings as completely different. The Paris museum is ornate, she said, while describing the Dallas museum as a black box.
In Paris, it was easy to imagine the setting in which the jewels would be worn. They fit right into their setting.
But in Dallas, the pieces of jewelry pop and become art on their own terms. The centerpiece of each room is a spectacular surprise with no distractions from the architecture.
DMA curator Sarah Schleuning said if there’s one thing to take away from the show, that would be “what it means to be inspired.”
And that’s what this show is about: being inspired. A design from architecture, from a ceramic tile or something seen in a book might become a piece realized in platinum, diamond and pearls. How details from a structure inspires jewelry; how jewelry may then inspire fashion; how one wonderful design inspires something completely different — it’s all here in this exhibit.
“For over a century, Cartier and its designers have recognized and celebrated the inherent beauty and symbolic values found in Islamic art and architecture, weaving similar elements into their own designs,” said Arteaga.
May Cartier continue to design and inspire for years to come.
Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity is on exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. and runs through Sept. 18. Free tickets to the exhibit are available at DMA.org.
