The distinction between craft and art is one that has plagued the applied arts of ceramics, glassware and smithing since humankind first began hammering metal and blowing glass. It’s a sometimes misleading argument, not least for its differing emphases on worth, but you could lay it all to rest in this exhibition of phenomenal silverware from the coffers of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.
Displaying the hugely skilled work of 59 contemporary makers – artisans and artists – from the Goldsmiths guild, much of it commissioned to adorn the tables of Goldsmiths Hall in London while entertaining the creative Liverymen and Freemen who make up its numbers, this exhibition ranges from deceptively ‘simple’ pieces to monumental works of intricate detail. Indeed one of the defining characteristics of the Goldsmiths collection, which contains roughly 8,000 works from 1350 to the present day, is that many of the items should be used for their original purpose.
The Goldsmiths Guild received its first Royal Charter in 1327. Founded to control the goldsmiths’ trade by the craftsmen themselves, it has ensured the quality of gold and silver since 1300 and still carries out its work as the oldest hallmarking authority in the UK.
But it is the artistic work of the past 15 years which is the subject of this exhibition. Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Art Director and Curator of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and a passionate and eloquent advocate of the silversmithing discipline, has selected work commissioned from artists of many nationalities based in the UK.
Hiroshi Suzuki’s Aqua-Poesy and Ayawind vases are fabulous organic creations, their fluid movement and free-form hand-raising (a technique for turning a flat sheet into a hollow form) evocative of both the Japanese tradition and the natural world. Rauni Higson’s fold-formed work has a tactile elegance, her Persephone Vase (2012) a flowing, naturally-inspired form. Sheila MacDonald, based in Shetland, created her more diminutive Shetland Bird vase in etching and enamel. Petya Kapralova’s sculptural stacking Viaduct cutlery set evocatively creates the effect of a viaduct reflected in water when the pieces are placed on their inlaid iron stand. And there is something very satisfying, too, in Nan Nan Liu’s tiny, hand-engraved Oyster Box.
But the Goldsmiths, using their charitable arm to nurture and develop the work of their members and the art, also bring together artists to learn from each other. Perhaps the most evocative example is by artist engraver Malcolm Appleby and enameller Jane Short, who have created two stunning beakers. Gold and enamel has been applied to the surface of the silverware with a patination that seems almost volcanic. Here, as elsewhere in this exhibition, form, function and concept are exquisitely married in the pursuit of art.
The Silversmith’s Art: Made In Britain Today, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (0300 123 6789, ww.nms.ac.uk) until January 4, daily 10am–5pm
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