Inspired Jewelry: From the Museum of Arts and Design

This lavishly illustrated book presents outstanding examples of one-of-a kind jewelry from the 1940s to the present drawn from the collection of the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. The 288 pages guide the reader through a fascinating diversity of materials, technique and approaches that make contemporary jewelry visually exciting and intellectually stimulating. No longer dependent on gold and gemstones, these creations demonstrate that commonplace aluminum, rubber, glass, paper, thumbtacks, and even salvaged gun triggers can be made into dazzling jewelry.

The international nature of today's jewelry is fully represented with established luminaries as well as emerging artists in the field from the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia including Gijs Bakker, Robert Ebendorf, Hermann Jünger, Sam Kramer, Otto Künzli, Linda MacNeil, Margaret DePatta, Bruno Martinazzi, Giò Pomodoro, Wendy Ramshaw, Art Smith, Kiff Slemmons, David Watkins, and Anna Maria Zanella.

The book contains a foreword by Holly Hotchner, Director of the Museum of Arts & Design; essay by Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Jewelry Curator of the Museum of Arts & Design, surveying major trends in contemporary jewelry over the past 75 years; and over 200 full-color illustrations of works from the Museum's Permanent Collection.