Style Edit: Celebrate the legacy of artist-jeweller Daniel Brush with ‘Thinking About Monet’ – his first showcase in Japan, held by Van Cleef & Arpels’ L’École School of Jewelry Arts
- ‘Thinking About Monet’, an exhibition of Brush’s work, will run till April 15 at Tokyo’s 21-21 Design Museum; Brush ‘resisted simple categories’ and, like Monet, was inspired by Japanese culture
- Curated by his long-time partner Olivia Brush, the show celebrates the work of the late artist, who worked with gold, aluminium and steel
Who would you entrust your legacy with when you’re gone? This difficult question may have crossed the minds of many great creators and artists. However, when one has shared their creative journey and process wholly with another for half a century, the answer is more straightforward.
American jeweller, sculptor and painter Daniel Brush shared this unique connection with his wife and creative partner of five decades, Olivia Brush. There’s no better perspective from which to curate a show about the artist and his tremendous body of work than through the eyes of his greatest collaborator.
“Intellectually, emotionally, and physically we worked as one,” says Olivia. “Daniel almost exclusively physically made the work, however, the ideas, the feelings and the deep philosophical immersion into areas of study was done together.”
Known for his gold granulation work and his hand-engraved work in steel and aluminium, Daniel’s unique approach to metalsmithing and jewellery-making is presented as a body of work that arrives in Japan for the first time.
Held by Van Cleef & Arpels’ L’École School of Jewelry Arts, “Thinking About Monet”, the third of a series of exhibitions honing in on Daniel’s work, kicks off in Tokyo’s 21-21 Design Museum and is set to run until April 15.
The exhibition’s theme is a nod to the artist’s affinity for Monet’s aesthetics, as well as the late Daniel’s body of work that shares the exhibition’s name. And there’s perhaps no setting more perfect than Tokyo to explore this particular pillar of his work, heavily influenced by the French Impressionist painter.
“Monet was greatly inspired by many aspects of Japanese culture, by Hokusai, and by the Japanese reverence for nature,” says Olivia.
