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DANIEL BRUSH,
THINKING ABOUT MONET
This exhibition pays tribute to the late American artist Daniel Brush (1947-2022), a poet of materiality who was at once a metalworker, a jewelry-maker, a philosopher, an engineer, a painter, and a sculptor.
Aluminum, steel, gold, paintings: through jewels, works of art and objects, the first part of the exhibition puts forward the diversity of mediums and methods in Brush's work, that went beyond traditional art categories. The second part highlights his Thinking about Monet series and explores his rare ability to harness materials to create sublime and ethereal objects.
After graduating from art school at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Brush was a professor at Georgetown University, teaching art philosophy. Since 1978 when he and his wife Olivia moved to New York City, he had been focusing on his work as an artist with myriad antique turning lathes and guilloche-engraving machines that he collected in his loft. He won the Isamu Noguchi Prize in 2022.
After a first exhibition Cuffs & Necks organized at L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts in Paris (2017) and in New York (2018), and Daniel Brush, An Edifying Journey at L'ÉCOLE Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong (2023), this exhibition showcases Brush's remarkable work to the Japanese public for the very first time.
THE "THINKING ABOUT MONET" SERIES
Brush thought back to his high school and college physics lessons, when he saw how a light beam could be bent and refracted through the use of a diffraction line grating, with its thousands of mechanically-scored lines per inch. He thought about the perfect marriage of color and light, the two most powerful emotional triggers in a jewel or gem. Inspired by the scientific principle of the diffraction grating, which can break a beam of light into many wavelengths that manifest as different colors, Brush began to hand-engrave a series of sculptures. He engraved them with a multitude of lines, so fine and engraved at such minutely specific angles that they too broke the light, so that what is refracted back to the viewer's eye are colors; warm, deep, emotionally-stirring colors created not by oil paint, or watercolor, or pigment but by light.
Illuminating Daniel's affinity to light and color, the Thinking about Monet series also distills his intense relationship with Japan and Japanese art.
Daniel Brush pondered and challenged the connection between art and jewel, while taking it to an entirely new level, of artistry, message, meaning and emotional impact, all embodied in Thinking about Monet.
(from a text by Vivienne Becker, jewelry historian)
Evening Conversation "THINKING ABOUT MONET"
Date: January 19 (Fri), 2024
Time：17:30 - 19:00
Speaker：Olivia Brush, Vivienne Becker (Jewelry historian)
URL：https://www.lecolevancleefarpels.com/jp/ja/person-conversation/thinking-about-monet
Daniel Brush with Jazz
Date: February 11 (Sun) and March 31 (Sun), 2024
Time: 14:00 - 14:30 / 16:00 - 16:30 / 18:00 - 18:30
Performers: Ayumi Unno (Saxophone), Naoto Suzuki (Guitar), Ren Yamamoto (Bass)
No reservation needed
Daniel Brush with Noh
Date: March 20 (Wed), 2024
Time: 14:00 - 14:20 / 16:00 - 16:20 / 18:00 - 18:20
Performers: Genjiro Okura (Shoulder drum, Okura School), Akio Shiotsu (Noh chanting, Kita School)
No reservation needed
- Dates
- January 19 (Fri) - April 15 (Mon), 2024
- Venue
- 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Gallery 3
- Closed
- January 30 (Tue), February 13 (Tue), March 11 (Mon)
- Hours
- 10:00 - 19:00
- Admission
- Free
- Organized by
- L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts supported by Van Cleef & Arpels
- Inquiry
- L'ÉCOLE Administrative Office
TEL 0120-50-2895 (After Jan 4, 2024) - Website
- https://www.lecolevancleefarpels.com/jp/en/exhibition/daniel-brush-thinking-about-monet