Posted 10 years ago
pamelacarg…
(41 items)
This Amazing, Important, Early work of Sam Kramer is dated 1946 (on back of the copper mount with hallmark) and is a wall hanging with detachable brooch. There is another brooch with a green taxidermy eye currently on display at the Fine Arts Museum ~ Boston. It is so interesting and can be viewed at various angles. For the Abstract Modernist connoisseur this is a real treat. Marbeth Schon has some of his work featured in her books and here is some information written by her about Sam Kramer:
"Sam Kramer (1913-1964) is best-known for his unconventional modernist jewelry, much of it biomorphic or anthropomorphic in design. He studied jewelry making at the University of Southern California in the 1930s. He studied gemology at New York University in 1939 and, that same year opened his own shop in Greenwich Village, later moving to West Eighth Street. His jewelry is unique and truly sculptural. It continues to be sought after by collectors of mid 20th Century handmade modernist jewelry.
His work is featured in both of my books, Modernist Jewelry, 1930-1960, The Wearable Art Movement and Form & Function, American Modernist Jewelry, 1940 - 1970 and was included in the exhibit "American Modernist Jewelry, 1940 - 1970" at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 2008."
Thank You for the Great Books Marbeth! =) pamelacargile@gmail.com
Very Early Sam Kramer Taxidermy Eye Brooch & Wall Hanging !
Hi Pamela,
I sent you an email, but was not sure how often you check your email. Is this for sale? I think it is just super cool. Please let me know.
Greetings, i must state that this is a very early and intact piece (1946), predating the one on display at MFA Boston by several years... and this one has it's original display mount signed and dated. True Sam Kramer Enthusiasts understand the importance of this early work.
10/09/2011
FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE SLIGHTLY MAD: AMERICAN MODERNIST JEWELRY
By Jeannine Falino
This essay was first delivered as a talk at SOFA NY in May 2011.
The Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition, Crafting Modernism: Midcentury Art and Design (opening in October 2011) features over 20 jewelers. Some are well known, such as Alexander Calder, while others have been resurrected from obscurity and brought forward for re-evaluation. Those represented in the show reveal that jewelers, like many artists in the exhibition, came from a range of disciplines. Some were trained in an academic setting; some, such as Sam Kramer, were largely self-taught; others hailed from the world of painting, sculpture and design.
The title of this talk was taken from the irrepressible Sam Kramer. His early Greenwich Village gallery was the center of activities both surrealistic and fun and he advertised his work as suitable for people who are ‘slightly mad.’ Kramer briefly studied jewelry with Glen Lukens in California. After a few years of travel, when he learned about gemology and Navajo culture, Kramer opened his gallery on Eighth Street in New York. From the start he worked with such unconventional materials as geodes and taxidermy eyes, used silver in a drip fashion and favored oddly compelling anthropomorphic and erotic shapes. All were calculated to startle and attract customers.
Sam KramerThe jewelers whose work is included in the exhibition self-selected to live and work apart from the commercial jewelry business that dominated retail stores. Choosing to make objects of little or no monetary value, to work alone or in small workshops and for relatively modest profits, these jewelers created rich and compelling forms that were a response to the artistic and cultural world in which they lived. They were purchased by individuals, often members of the avant-garde, who felt a kinship with this work. One, New York art historian Blanche Brown, said derisively that ‘diamonds were the badge of the philistine.’ Some, such as Kramer and Ed Weiner, had little formal education in the field. Others were part of the academic world that sprang up as a result of the postwar GI Bill that guaranteed education to returning veterans. Many of them produced work of lasting fascination, the result of their interactions with the arts and the psychological theories of the day that included Freud and Jung. Kramer was embraced by members of the beat movement, but recognition by the art world of his work and status as a true innovator did not come until much later.
In the vanguard of studio jewelers, Kramer opened his gallery in 1939 and his work reflected the surrealistic developments then pursued by Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. All employed elements of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions in their work. Kramer grasped the wider implications for jewelry from an early date, creating wall mounts so that his jewelry could be enjoyed, whether worn or not.