Erte Art to Wear The Complete Jewelry Author:Marshall Lee Throughout his 97-year life Erte never ceased to astonish. After he had already succeeded dramatically in several careers & could have taken a well-earned rest, or confined his activity to established programs, he began, in his mid-80's a whole new career in jewelry design--without ever diminishing his extensive creation of graphic... more »s, sculputre, and objets d'art, or his work in theatre & industrial design.
Considered the father of Art Deco, Erte was from 1916 to 1937 the dominant visual presence of Harper's Bazaar, contributing 250 cover designs as well as some 2500 other drawings. During this period & later he was active also in fashion design & the design of sets & costumes for stage productions ranging from the Folies Bergere to the Paris Opera. At 76 he began creating lithographs & serigraphs, whose popularity boosted him into a new & higher orbit of fame & appreciaton. Incredibly, a decade later he launched a program of sculptture that proved equally successful. This experience gave Erte' the confidence to go forward with his longtime desire to create wearable art jewelry at a reatively modest price.
Erte's ideas for jewelry involved such intricacy & complexity that he despaired of ever finding artisans with the skill & patience to execute them satisfactorily. It was not until 1979 that the people & facilities needed to carry out his ideas were assembled ...& a major program of jewelry creation was undertaken.
ERTE': Art to Wear/The Complete Jewelry--contains superb color photographs, all but a few made specially for this book, of 328 pieces of Erte' jewelry, plus 179 additional jewelry design drawings he made or approved. The photographs are accompanied by commentaries & by design drawings & technical diagrams, some with comments in Erte's own hand. The introduction gives an overview of Erte's life & career, a survey of jewelry design by other artist, & critiques of many of the jewels illustrated in the book.« less