While the show’s opening is more than a month away, the Denver Art Museum is already selling tickets to its exhibition, “Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century,” which will glow with iconic jewelry, timepieces and other dazzling creations by the French fashion leader.
This show opening Nov. 16 comes on the heels of the museum’s popular Yves Saint Laurent fashion retrospective in 2012 and also the “Passport to Paris” French Impressionist landscapes exhibition, which sold out and ran through early February.
Cartier is expected to sell out quickly, too, says Margaret Young-Sanchez, curator of the exhibition.
It is not a traveling show. This is the only time these Cartier creations have ever been brought together and presented in this format, Young-Sanchez says.
“It’s a completely original and distinctive take on Cartier,” she says.
Young-Sanchez says the museum has been planning the exhibition for five years.
“Brilliant” leads visitors through sections that capture the spirit and evolution of Cartier through the 20th century and how the creations reflected history.
“For visitors, you get the experience of seeing just knockout, drop-dead, beautiful jewelry, and you can also learn something about the history of that century that created the world that we live in now,” Young-Sanchez says.
“Aristocracy and Aspiration (1900-1914)” presents Cartier’s early style: refined, ornate, generous, high-quality diamonds and the new use of platinum, often designed for European royalty and the burgeoning class of wealthy industrialists and financiers at the time, Young-Sanchez says.
“They created incredibly intricate, delicate and sophisticated jewels in that early era,” she says.
Then comes Cartier’s Art Deco period, which reflected the free-spirited 1920s. Bracelets to pair with sleeveless gowns. Long “sautoir” necklaces to complement the straight lines of the flapper dresses. Bandeaux instead of tiaras.
The exhibition also features items for men, including a clock made for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a section about foreign influences, including some of Cartier’s most famous Egyptian-influenced pieces.
Also see Cartier’s colorful “Mystery Clock,” a tiger lorgnette and flamingo brooch worn by the Duchess of Windsor, and jewelry that belonged to celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly) and Mexican film actress Maria Felix.
High fashion and couture are no longer just interests for the wealthiest fraction of society, Young-Sanchez says. Part of the broader appeal stems from museums, which continue to break down distinctions that used to exist between fine art (architecture, painting and sculpture) and decorative art, such as fashion and jewelry.
“Those distinctions and qualitative judgments are disappearing,” she says. “Decorative art and design are taking their place as the equal of things like painting and sculpture. We shouldn’t have this hierarchy of the fine arts and everything else.”
Over the years, she says, the museum has placed more emphasis on recognizing fashion as an important area in art.
And to help expand public awareness, “Brilliant” also will present a separate gallery focusing on the jewelry-creation process.
“It takes visitors from the design phase through the manufacturing of objects, and it gives people more of an understanding of what skill and labor goes into producing these gorgeous objects,” Young-Sanchez says.
“BRILLIANT: CARTIER IN THE 20TH CENTURY.” 20 Jewelry and other objects designed by Cartier from 1900 to 1975 will be on exhibit at The Denver Art Museum Nov. 16-March 15. Hamilton Building, Level 2, 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway.Tickets start at $15 for adult members, $25 for non-members, $5 for kids 6 to 18, free for under 5. Advanced tickets are recommended.
