Art Nouveau Diamond Pendants In New Exhibition

Published on 18/07/08

Diamond necklaces and diamond bracelets may be on display at a new art nouveau exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The Boston Globe has profiled the upcoming Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewellery display, which is the first show from Yvonne Markovitz, the new curator of jewellery at the museum.

Ms Markovitz is reportedly the US's first dedicated curator of jewellery at a museum, with her position funded by the museum's trustee, Susan B Kaplan.

"She's extremely knowledgeable - that's an understatement - thoroughly researches everything and is really focused on the jewellery," Ms Kaplan told the newspaper.

Imperishable beauty was a phrase coined by Henry van de Velde, an art nouveau architect who sought to describe the movement's rejection of Victorian traditionalism in favour of the surreal curves of the period's diamond pendants and other accessories.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts opened on July 4th, 1976, on Copley Square, since which it has moved to a new location on Huntington Avenue.