Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 30 Sept 07 - 21 Jan 08
The exhibition goes on tour>
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum: 14 Mar - 6 Jul 08; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina: 16 Aug 08 - 4 Jan 09; Tacoma Museum of Art, Tacoma, Washington: 27 Jun - 13 Sept 09
Catalogue available at mfah.org

photo: Andrea Baldeck Helen Drutt 1997 © Andrea Baldeck

Helen Williams Drutt collects contemporary jewelry since the 1960s, when she first encountered a Lechtzin brooch that she identified as fine art. Since this time she researches in this field. In 1973, she established the Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia and also began to teach a history course on the modern and contemporary crafts movement at the Philadelphia College of Art. Since 1983 Drutt´s personal collection was exhibited at museums in America and Europe. The MFAH acquired it in 2002 and Drutt continues to augment the collection. Drutt is an honorary member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, Visionary! of the American Craft Museum, and is the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees, among other awards.

more culture >>>