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The Four Seasons in Sixteen Stone Worth of Silver Where and when: Jun-July 2002 - exhibition in Galerie Lieve Hemel, Amsterdam October 2002 - PAN Amsterdam art & antiques fair Four large silver sculptures which were created in the context of a free commission by "Galerie Lieve Hemel", by four silversmiths: (for biografical information please click on their names) At Brandenburg - Autumn Jef Huibers - Summer Jan van Nouhuys - Winter Paul Pallandt - Spring The exhibition on the theme of "Seasons in Silver" also featured smaller works by these four silversmiths. |
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Some characteristics of silver:
- Silver (Ag) - precious metal, specific gravity 10 - Melting point 960°C - Delightfully malleable down to a thickness of 0.003mm, this being one of the main reasons why the chasing technique, although quite hard to master, is such a particular favourite among silversmiths - Corrosion resistant albeit susceptible to sulphuric compounds - High electrical and thermal conductivity - Highly reflective, 95% of the visible spectrum immediately following polishing, tailing off to 60% when remaining unpolished for a while - Used on a particularly large scale in photography as silver chloride and silver bromide - Silver alloy is is used by dentists to plug cavities. The silver that is used by silversmiths has a content of 925, any higher content not being advisable in view of the material's limited strength and hardness and for reasons of processing. The hallmark indicates the silver content while the maker's mark represents the artist's signature. Silver has been known as well as being used as a precious material from as early as 3000 BC in Egypt, and had come to be used on a vast scale in Europe by 1000 BC. It is mined all over Europe, often as a by-product of copper and gold. |
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For centuries silver has been associated with luxury utensils. The first guilds focusing exclusively on silver were formed in the Middle Ages. Although the interest in silver can be seen as an unbroken line historically, there has been less continuity artistically, with prominent silversmiths popping up every now and again who could be regarded as artists, such as Dutchman Johannes Lutma, a 17th century guild master. However, there has been no continuous development in a strictly art history sense.
Moreover, during the 20th century the focus gradually shifted to design, which essentially is the product of cross-pollination between art and everyday life, and it is from this perspective that silversmiths are offered a loophole to cast off the profession's limitations. It should be noted in this context that even today the gold and silversmith curriculum is regarded as vocational training, with little scope for honing one's artistic ambitions or talents. Of course this is largely due to the technical aspects of the profession, which in many other art-related curriculums were pushed into the background many decades ago. In fact, it is the monitoring of the material, through hallmarks and maker's marks, that ensures that silversmiths are at the mercy of the official curriculum. Which explains why three of these four artists trained in Schoonhoven, the "silver town" of the Netherlands, where the fourth, Jef Huibers, taught classes for many years. The "Silver in Motion" Foundation was incorporated in 1990 by Jan van Nouhuys with the aim of doing away with the rigid distinction between the applied art of the appliance, to which he felt condemned as a silversmith with ambitions of his own, and artistic expression. In the 1990s Van Nouhuys with the help of others organised lectures, symposiums and exhibitions, persuading people from other disciplines to go to work on silver as well. "Silver in Motion" was recently disbanded, the Foundation's objective - putting in motion all those having an association with silver as well as many others - having been achieved. |