03.18.2023-08.20.2023
JEAN DUNAND L'ALCHIMISTE
Jean Dunand (1877-1942) was an artist of many talents and a significant figure in the Art Deco movement. He always placed experimentation at the heart of his practice and drew out new expressive forms from his materials. As an undisputed master of dinanderie, the art of hand-worked metalware, he used complex decorative processes to accentuate the hammered surfaces of the objects he rendered. As a virtuoso of lacquer, he wedded plant resin with metal and later applied it to furniture, panels, jewellery, and book covers, which led the way for new aesthetics.
Numerous exceptional loans from the Dunand family enrich this exhibition as it pays homage to this alchemist of modernity, trained at the Geneva School of Industrial Arts, who was a brilliant influence on the interwar Parisian scene.
Image
Montre à gousset
Cadran signé DUNAND, rue Hallé 72 Paris, Paris 1915
Acier incrusté de métal doré – H. max. 6,3 cm, D. 4,6 cm
© Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, photo : B. Jacot-Descombes