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Jewellery as free form and visual impact

New trends in artistic jewellery are still occurring today as a result of very definite cultural influences and movements, as well as through changes in our social lives. Jewellery is a medium that can send messages.

Jewellery also changes according to the times, just like the changes that have taken place in the modern period in architecture, literature, painting, sculpture and furniture design. The search for constantly new means and ways, style trends from or characteristics of various countries. Influences from one country to another. Absorbing, breathing in ideas and developing them. One to the other. Possibilities – with different kinds of materials.

Jewellery has developed more in the past 30 years than virtually any other artistic field. I, too, have been able to contribute to this.

In 1967 I was employed by Andrew Grima in London as a goldsmith and ended up staying in England for three years. In 1969 I was put in charge of the ornamental watch collection for Omega at Andrew Grima. Subsequently, I started to get interested in working with contemporary jewellery. I was mainly influenced by Stella Liechtenstein, Jim Dine and Trova, but also by the many colours of London, which contrasted with the greyness of daily life in Vienna. Here, in England, I succeeded in emancipating myself from the prevailing attitudes to jewellery and gradually began to implement my own ideas. Jewellery became a medium for me. I had a means of sending messages and signals via the wearer, who was then forced to adopt different attitudes. Jewellery as free form and visual impact. My first acrylic and precious metal works came into being.

I made the acquaintance of or became friends with Reinhold Reiling, Claus Bury and Gerd Rothmann, as well as with David Watkins and Herman Juenger. There was also the opening of the Electrum Gallery in London.

In 1975 I became the owner, with my wife, Sandra, of an old farmhouse in the southern Waldviertel, a wooded area in the country, north of Vienna. Working in the country means an opportunity to work in harmony, focusing on what one has experienced and expressing it in one’s own particular way.

I try to show jewellery not only in small, but also in larger dimensions, to present the form more clearly. Among my works is a sculpture I was commissioned to do in 1986 for a fountain in Kagran, a suburb of Vienna.

Colour in my work meant a great deal to me in the seventies. Colourful London, the brilliant colours of the plastics of the hoardings in Soho, neon signs at Piccadilly and my profession as a jewellery-maker in London – a symbiosis of colour, gold and silver. My first independent pieces of jewellery were created. Cheap materials of daily use (acrylic glass) contrasted with precious ones. From that point on, this became an aspect of my work. What is relevant and most important to me is the inner, really true value of the material I am using. It should show its true characteristics: a clear, provocative statement without any compromises. Tin is pliable, plastic colourful and gold as strong as steel.

After working with synthetic materials and precious metals in the seventies, by 1980 I was expressing my ideas in tin and gold. Pure tin is very soft and the person using it as jewellery can wear it in numerous different positions. I worked small segments of gold, the function of which was to hold the jewellery in place, into each piece. In 1988 the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibited works showing the impressions of my then two-year stay in London in a personal exhibition.

I create my works as independent as small sculptures and to be hung on the wall to bring them closer to their audience. Jewellery should not be put away in cases, but kept where it is visible when not being worn. The relationship between an item of jewellery and the wearer is intense, which means that it is worn both consciously and with emotion at the right moment. Thus it passes on its signals and messages.

I am aware of the fact that I also demand a certain prerequisite of strength from those who wear my jewellery and risk attracting a good deal of attention. It is considerably easier to mention that you have a Picasso at home than to explain why and how it is that you are wearing precisely this item of jewellery. For these reasons, it is always important to me also to make larger objects and sculptures which accentuate the forms from my world of jewellery. Jewellery thus becomes an artistic medium which enjoys equal rights with painting, sculpture and architecture in imparting messages which include certain aspects of our environment and the discussion they involve.

Understanding the quality of jewellery, appreciating it and fathoming its point demands no less attention than is needed to express an opinion on a painting or any other form or art. Jewellery can, however, be much more. It can be integrated into fields such as fashion, furniture or theatre. Yet jewellery artists all have their own independence, their own messages and intellectual references to form, material and themes.

I would like to make the following comments regarding my own work: just as letters are symbols which are joined together to form sounds and finally, in their entirety, form language which is communicated to others, I interpret my jewellery objects as signs of an inner order which I, myself, have created and which I attempt to impart to others as well. In order to go beyond this attempt to be understood, I need to feel a certain degree of sensitivity on the part of those who experience my work. My language is not codified. I constantly create new words which develop out of impressions throughout my life - out of my quite subjectively felt present and past. My language is formed from reflection on what I have experienced first-hand, from phenomena and perhaps also from yearnings in the daily world. Themes and priorities can change in the process. What "concerns" me needs to be transported further, not in words, but fixed and made touchable. In stable signals – to be worn on the body. It is my hope that those who wear my jewellery will grasp my message and become transmitters of my thoughts in my artificial language.

This was also the situation in my last computer works, "The Ring": the stressing of numerous insights through division and adjustment. Here, too, once again: other means and possibilities produce new messages. The new tool is the computer screen. The goldsmith’s craft is not only defined by the file and hammer. Artistic ideas may also be expressed on the computer "drawing-board”, where it is possible to gain new impulses and to utilize its practical and theoretical possibilities. Computer graphics help me to describe this path through my imagination. I have the opportunity to represent the shapes and dimensions onscreen, where I can scrutinize them – in a form which is, to me, absolutely real.

Fritz Maierhofer

  • 2009
    • Galleria Gr 20, Padova, Italy Galerie Stühler, Munich and Berlin

  • 2008
    • "02.41 Fritz Maierhofer" Caroline Van Hoek, Contemporary Jewellery Gallery, Brussels

  • 2007
    • Galleria Gr 20, Padova, Italy "Sisonke" Cross Continental Design Catwalk, Vienna

  • 2006
    • "Fritz Maierhofer 2006",Künstlerhaus, Vienna

  • 2005
    • Galerie Am Lieglweg, Neulengbach, Austria

  • 2002
    • "Schmuckchaos", Künstlerhaus Vienna (Performance with Simone Bagó)

  • 2000
    • Galerie 422, Gmunden

  • 1999
    • Galerie Göttlicher, Krems - Stein

    • Stadtmuseum, Pöchlarn

    • Austria Center, ECR – 1999, Vienna

  • 1998
    • "The Ring", Künstlerhaus, Vienna

  • 1997
    • "Jewellery up to the present day", Looshaus, Vienna

  • 1995
    • Villa de Bondt, Gent

    • Promenadengasse, Vienna

  • 1994
    • Galerie Ibo, Klagenfurt

  • 1993
    • New Jewels Gallery, Knokke Heist, Belgium

  • 1992
    • Künstlerhaus Wien, Kinogalerie, Vienna

  • 1990
    • "New Jewels", Kunstgalery Knokke Heist, Belgium

    • Galerie Christine Marschalek, Vienna

  • 1989
    • Zentralsparkasse Alserstrasse, Vienna

  • 1988
    • Strandcafe, Spitz an der Donau

    • Traude Fritsch bittet zu: Fritz Maierhofer Neue Arbeiten aus England

  • 1987
    • Sedgwick Centre, London

    • Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  • 1986
    • Galerie Würthle, Vienna

  • 1983
    • Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern

    • "Schmuck für Körper und Raum", Volksbank Zwettl

  • 1982
    • Galerie Ibo, Klagenfurt

    • "Schmuck in Zinn und Gold", Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1981
    • Kleine Galerie, Linz

  • 1979
    • "Schmuckformen", Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1978
    • Galerie Klosterstrasse, Linz

    • Galerie am Graben, Vienna

    • Sparkasse Melk

    • Zentralsparkasse Elterleinplatz, Vienna

  • 1977
    • "Metallzeichnungen in Gold und Silber"

    • Galerie am Graben, Vienna

    • Galerie Maringer, St. Pölten

  • 1975
    • "Gold and acrylic jewellery", Electrum Gallery, London

    • Der Kunstladen, Neubeuern Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1974
    • Galerie Kaiser, Vienna

    • Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1973
    • Galerie Nouvelles Images, The Hague

    • Galerie Sven, Paris

  • 1972
    • Galerie Arkade Schullin, Graz

    • "Schmuck - Objekte, Metall und Acrylic", Galerie in der Blutgasse, Vienna

  • 1971
    • Galerie Fath, Göppingen

    • Galerie in der Blutgasse, Vienna

    • Galerie Wittmann, Vienna
  • 2002
    • Galerie Stühler, Berlin
    • "Jewelry in Painting", Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA
    • Austria Center, ECR – 2002, Vienna

  • 2001
    • "Turning – Point", shown at Millenium Galleries, Sheffield, England
    • Electrum Gallery, London
    • Sculpture to wear, California
    • "The Ring", Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA
    • "Radiant Geometries", American Craft Museum, New York
    • "Alles Schmuck", Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich
    • Oratorio di San Rocco, Padova
    • Galerie Göttlicher, Krems – Stein
    • Grösse "S", Künstlerhaus, Vienna
    • "Mikromegas", Munich, on tour

  • 2000
    • Galerie Slavik, Vienna
    • Porto Rotondo, Venice
    • "Turning – Point", shown at Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt and Universität für angewandte Kunst, Ausstellungszentrum Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna

  • 1999
    • "Turning – Point", Contemporary Austrian Jewellery, Nö Dokumentationszentrum für moderne Kunst, St.Pölten

  • 1998
    • "Jewellery Moves", National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
    • Galerie im Gerichtsgebäude, Neulengbach
    • Kunsthalle Stahlwerk, Berndorf

  • 1996
    • Galerie V + V, Vienna
    • Looshaus, Vienna

  • 1995
    • Vienna Art Auction
    • "Jewellery and work in paper", Galerie Tiller, Vienna

  • 1994
    • Art in the landscape, Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz

  • 1993
    • The Art of Jewellery, Tokyo
    • Galerie Neon, Brussels
    • Wedding Collection, Villa de Bondt, Gent

  • 1992
    • Studio exhibition with Bernd Munsteiner, Stipshausen
    • Diagonal – Austrian Design

  • 1991
    • Austrian architecture and design beyond tradition in the 1990's, Art Institute, Chicago
    • Art Fair, Gent, Belgium
    • Ausstrahlungen, Vienna
    • Design zum Lieben, MAK, Vienna

  • 1990
    • European Metal, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
    • Schmuck Europa '90 Triennale Européenne du Bijoux, Paris, Luxembourg Museum
    • Galerie Slavik, Vienna

  • 1989
    • Benson+Hedges "Art+Design", shown in
    • · Galerie Pels-Leusden Villa Grisebach, Berlin
    • · Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf
    • · Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau
    • · Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum auf Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig
    • Studio GR 20, Padova
    • Studio A. Perspectiva, Rome
    • Mazzoleni Arte, Milan
    • "Ornamenta 1", Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim
    • 1989 Perth International Crafts Triennial, Art Gallery of Western Australia
    • Refektorium St.Michael, Vienna

  • 1988
    • Schmuckauktion Dorotheum, Vienna
    • "Schmuck aus Österreich", Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern
    • Benson+Hedges "Art+Design", Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
    • Künstler Ateliers 1988, Donaufestival Niederösterreich
    • Schmuckobjekt 88, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
  • 1987
    • "Europa Joyerìa Contemporànea", Barcelona
    • "Kunststoff", 3rd international summerexhibition of jewellery, Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern
    • "Phänomen Schmuck, Zeichen am Körper", Linz
    • "Jablonec 87", Czechoslovakia
    • Bijoux autrichiens 1987, Brussels

  • 1986
    • "Evolution of jewellery 86", Padova
    • Galerie Maya Behn, Zürich

  • 1985
    • International exhibition "Nya smycken", Stockholm
    • "Schmuck", Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern
    • "Körper plus", Basel
    • Austrian Avantgarde, Galerie nouvelles images, The Hague
    • Opening exhibition of Suse Wassibauer's Gallery
    • "Kunstformen jetzt", Salzburg
    • Gemeindemuseum, The Hague
    • "Schmuck, Objekte, Zeichnungen", W 3/6, Vienna

  • 1984
    • "Jewellery International", New York
    • "Base and Noble", Electrum Gallery, London
    • "Körper plus", Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern
    • "Contemporary Jewellery", National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo
    • "Contemporary Austrian Art", Biennale in Venice
    • Gioiello arte contemporaneo d' Austria, Ateneo San Basso
  • 1983
    • "Inno alla gioia", Galerie Tot, Padova
    • "Schmuck in der Kunst", Katzenberg

  • 1982
    • "Enamel", travelling exhibition
    • Craft Fair, Munich
    • "Schmuck 82 - Tendenzen?", Jewellery Museum, Pforzheim
    • "Internationales Kunsthandwerk", Burgdorf, Switzerland

  • 1981
    • "Schmuck International", Künstlerhaus, Vienna
    • "The Ring", Electrum Gallery, London
    • "Enamel", Galerie am Graben, Vienna and on tour in Europe and Australia

  • 1980
    • "Enamel, Jewellery and Tableware in the past and present", Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim and tour
    • Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau
    • Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1979
    • "Schmuck-Tischgerät aus Österreich",
    • continued International Jewellery Art Exhibition, Tokyo
    • "Möbel", Künstlerhaus, Vienna
    • "Applied Art in Austria today", Kunstgewerbemuseum, Köln

  • 1978
    • Neue Galerie, Linz
    • Museum of Decorative Arts, Lausanne
    • Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau
    • Landesmuseum Joanneum Augusteum, Salzburg
    • Galerie Albertstrasse, Graz
    • "Schmuck-Tischgerät aus Österreich 1904-1908, 1973-1977", Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim

  • 1977
    • "Tendenzen 77", Pforzheim

  • 1976
    • International Contemporary Art Fair 76, Paris
    • Galerie Wolkenstein, Vienna
    • "Neue Wege der Schmuckgestaltung", Werth, Germany
    • "Schöpferisches Handwerk der Gegenwart", Künstlerhaus, Vienna
    • "10 Goldschmiede", Galerie Albertstrasse, Graz
    • International Jewellery Art Exhibition, Tokyo
    • "Multiples", Galerie am Graben, Vienna

  • 1975
    • Austrian Institute, New York
    • "Jewellery in Europe", Victoria and Albert Museum, London
    • Travelling exhibition, shown in:
    • · Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Scotland
    • · Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh
    • · Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
    • · Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
    • Galerie Albertstrasse, Graz

  • 1974
    • "Avantgarde 74", Stuttgart
    • Symposium "Jewellery in Steel", shown in Kapfenberg,
    • Nürnberg, Pforzheim, Linz, Vienna
    • Art fair, Basel Art 5, 74, Galerie Kaiser

  • 1973
    • "Aspects of jewellery", Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland
    • "Tendenzen 73", Pforzheim
    • Jewellery Art, Terauchi, Kyoto
    • International Jewellery Art Exhibition, Tokyo
    • Galerie am Graben, Vienna
    • "Nouvelles Images", The Hague

  • 1972
    • "Schmuck 72 – Schöpferisches Handwerk der Gegenwart", Austrian Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna
    • International Craft Fair, Munich
    • "Concepts of Modern Jewellery", Electrum Gallery, London
    • Galerie Krauss, Pforzheim
    • Galerie At Home, Toulouse
    • "Experimenta 72", Hamburg

  • 1971
    • Electrum Gallery, London (opening exhibition)
    • "Schmuck-Kunst-Miniaturen-Objekte-Silber-Gold-Acrylglas", Galerie Lalique, Berlin
    • Internatonal Craft Fair, Munich
    • International Spring Fair, Berlin, Galerie Springer
    • Galerie Orfèvre, Düsseldorf

  • 1970
    • Multimedia, Salzburg
    • "Tangenten 70", Vienna

  • 1967
    • "Viennese Gold and Silvercrafts", Vienna

Acquisitions of museums and collections:

Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Ministry of Art And Education, Vienna
Government of Lower Austria
Jewellery Museum Pforzheim
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Goldsmiths Hall, London
National Museum of Scotland
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Dannerstiftung, Munich
Royal College of Art – Study Collection
Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Sammlung Inge Asenbaum, Vienna
Helen Drutt Collection, Philadelphia
Lotte Reimers Stiftung, Deidesheim, Deutschland
Ram's Wustum Museum, Racin, Nordamerika

and in various private collections

Awards:

  • 1972 Prize from the Viennese Art Foundation
  • 1972 Prize at the International Jewellery Competition in the Jewellery Museum Pforzheim
  • 1976 Scholarship from the Ministry of Art and Education, Vienna
  • 1981 Prize "Diamanten heute", Munich
  • 1986 - 1987 Research Fellowship of the Sir John Cass College of Art, London
  • 1987 Prize at "Jablonec 87"
  • 1990 Austrian Design Award Acknowledgement
  • 2003 Received the Honorary Title of Professor through the Republic of Austria

Timeline:

  • 1941 Born in Vienna
  • 1955 Began a traditional goldsmith apprenticeship with Anton Heldwein, a well known jeweller in Vienna
  • 1965 Took charge of running the workshop
  • 1966 Took the diploma
  • 1967 Went to London and worked there for Andrew Grima. Was in charge of making a watch collection for Omega which was exhibited at Goldsmiths Hall in 1970 and also shown in several other countries
  • 1969 Began to work free-lance in London, started to experiment with acrylic in combination with gold and silver
  • 1970 Returned to Vienna and had his first exhibition in Salzburg
  • 1971 Made the first object in acrylic and brass
  • 1972 Wall objects in acrylic and aluminium
  • 1974 Took part in a steel symposium; third object in steel and acrylic
  • 1975 Bought a farmhouse near Artstetten in Lower Austria, restored it and built his studio there
  • 1977 Worked on "metal drawings" in silver and gold
  • 1979 Furniture designs in cooperation with Wiener Damaszierkunst in Vienna (tables and screens)
  • 1980 Began to experiment with jewellery in tin and gold
  • 1985 Opened a workshop and gallery in Vienna together with three other artists, used for seminars and as an "Intensivworkshop"
  • 1986 Designed a fountain sculpture for the council square in Kagran, Vienna
  • 1987 Temporarily went back to London following an invitation of the Sir John Cass College of Art and started to work on forms and structures in gold and silver inspired by the building sites in the City. This work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London Guest lecturer at the Royal College of Art and Epsom College.
  • 1988 Returned to Austria
  • 1989 Received the Carinthian Private Galleries Award and held tutorial lectures at the Royal College of Art, London
  • 1990 Austrian Design Award acknowledgement
  • 1991 - 1998 Directed the jewellery design workshop, Akademie Graz
  • 1993 Monumental jewellery sculpture for the Villa de Bondt, Gent
  • 1994 Galerie Ibo, Klagenfurt
  • 1995 Galerie Tiller, Vienna
  • 1996 Galerie V & V, Vienna
  • 1997 "Jewellery up to the present day", a solo exhibition at Looshaus, Vienna
  • 1998 "Jewellery Moves", National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh "The Ring", Künstlerhaus, Vienna
  • 1999 Initiative of "Turning – Point", an exhibition of 41 austrian jewellery artists
  • 2000 Galerie Slavik, Vienna; Galerie 422, Gmunden
  • 2001 "Radiant Geometries", American Craft Museum, New York
  • 2002 "Jewellery in Painting", Mobilia Gallery, U.S.A. - Galerie Stühler, Berlin - Austria Center, Vienna
  • 2003 "RE-VIEW – Aspects of Austrian Jewellery Art", Tokyo
  • 2004 Jewellery of Europe, France
  • 2005 Galerie Cap D'art, Genval, Belgium
  • 2006 "Challenging the Chatelaine!" Design Museum, Helsinki "Fritz Maierhofer - Schmuck Hat Keine Grenzen" Künstlerhaus, Vienna
  • 2007 "Sisonke" Cross Continental Design Catwalk, Vienna Galleria Gr 20, Padova, Italy
  • 2008 "02.41 Fritz Maierhofer" Caroline Van Hoek, Contemporary Jewellery Gallery, Brussels
  • 2009 Galleria Gr 20, Padova, Italy