David Watkins - Artist in Jewellery, a Retrospective View (1972 - 2010)

A display exploring the work of renowned contemporary jeweller David Watkins will open at the V&A this February. Watkins’ jewellery is characterised by shifts in techniques and materials and the display will show the full breadth of his work from minimal sculptural pieces to vibrant and improvisational compositions in form and colour, to large-scale objects intended to interact with the wearers’ body. Watkins began his career as a jazz pianist and sculptor and created model spacecrafts for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. His early work echoes this aesthetic and pieces on show will include a silver and white enamel necklace and brooch that evoke space probes and the moon landing station.

The display will focus on Watkins’ innovative use of materials that range from paper to gold to industrial materials such as steel, aluminium and titanium. It is organised chronologically moving from his early monochrome creations through to his eighties work inspired by jazz music that is often characterised by steel frames that enclose the wearer in layered structures coloured with neoprene. During the nineties Watkins’ work was shaped by his return to working with gold and the techniques of fine goldsmithing and several pieces of more pastoral work, influenced by nature and simple geometry, will be on show.

all photos by David Watkins, text by V&A Museum