For the first time ever, Sotheby’s is hosting an auction that focuses exclusively on jewelry created by renowned 20th- and 21st-century artists—fully uniting the worlds of jewelry and art. Art as Jewelry as Art will spotlight more than 150 works, including those from Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalì, Picasso, and plenty more.
Among them is an eye jewelry piece by Austrian violinist Yury Revich. “When I was creating the Shostakovich [pictured at top], I was inspired by the edginess, expressivity, discomfort, and surreal beauty of music by Shostakovich,” says Revich about his collection, Seeing Music and Hearing the Art. Revich also wrote a piece of music that will accompany Shostakovich and later release it as an NFT.
Revich continues, “I was always inspired by the world’s shapes around me, by the sense of time, the air, atmospheric geometry, and space function…. How would it feel to look at the world through the windows of endless fantasy? I decided to fulfill my passion and created those ‘windows.’ These are the pieces for the eyes, reflecting the shapes of the world and sound. They protect you from the routine of the world around you and create your own infinite space. I believe a person’s face is a canvas with a million feelings, and eyes are the universe of diverse emotions and energies. Pieces I design are created to express those energies further and are translated into physical objects.”
The sale dives even deeper into the world of NFTs with pieces such as Metagolden’s ring (shown above). “We are transitioning from a time when NFTs had value themselves (like a PFP) to a place where the utility of the NFT actually creates the value in the form of authenticity, ownership, and access,” Francie Ballard, the founder of Metagolden and former fashion editor, tells JCK.
“Jewelry, just like any other high-value asset, stands to benefit from this greatly, as you will now be able to trace provenance and transference with 100% accuracy and transparency. In most cases, the original designer or creator benefits from royalties when the piece is resold. But the buyer will soon have the same ability to recapture downstream revenue. In this way, consumers are becoming speculators with the jewelry being a valuable, wearable investment,” Ballard says.
The online auction will run from Sept. 23 through Oct. 4.
Top: Austrian violinist Yury Revich and his eye jewelry piece, Shostakovich.
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