Exhibition: The Jeweler Jean Vendome Put In The Spotlight

If there is one exhibition not to be missed this year, it is the one dedicated to the Jewelry Artist Jean Vendome, put under the spotlight by L'Ecole des Arts Joailliers in Paris from October 8th until August 28th 2021. Free of charge, you will nevertheless need to make an online reservation to maintain social distancing regulations. Each slot will allow for a 1 hour tour and enable a maximum of 20 people. So don't forget to book in advance not to miss it!

Jean Vendome, a pioneer in contemporary jewelry

Jean Vendome has left this world with a legacy of over 30,000 pieces. Pioneer in creative a lyrical fine jewelry, Ohan Tuhdarian aka Jean Vendome is a goldsmith with a singular talent who uses rare stones to initiate a journey or a sense of poetry. He has confronted himself to metal since the 1950's, creating modern jewelry that blurs the boundaries between an artistic jewel and high jewelry. Their graphic lines and singular nature gives a unique approach for which there is no real desire to categorize.

Breaking conventional codes, he privileges the beauty of the object, the voyage and dream-like aspiration without contributing a great importance to the quality of the stones. On the contrary, because the gem has inclusions, its unique characteristics are a wonderful terrain for creativity, a world to explore, a beam of light to capture.

The jewel becomes a wearable sculpture, a work of art, a quest for loopholes, brilliance, of colors and textures. Jean Vendome is an alchemist-jeweler that will have left an impression during this era, in which he also rub shoulders with the greatest intellectuals of his time.

The Exhibition: A Homage by the Van Cleef School

The "Ecole des Arts Joailliers" pays a homage to Jean Vendome by highlighting the universe of this adventurous creator, passionate about gemology and mineralogy, who constantly explored new forms and a sense of balance. During this exhibition, over 130 pieces from private and public collections will be exhibited to highlight the visionary aspect of his creativity and talent. In particular, the interesting necklace of Alena Caillois, wife of the author and academician Roger Caillois, for which Jean Vendome also created his Academy Sword and other jewels, witness of his constantly renewed creativity.

The visitors will be initiated to the process he developed over the years; exploring form and materials inspired by the major artistic movements of the 20th century. From pop kinetics to the spatial dream of Apollo 13, his jewels translated into Constellations, Northern Lights or Space in the 1970s. Towers, skyscrapers; the geometric volumes of his ring designs portrayed his passion for urban architecture and the race for verticality. The 1980s were inspired by "unreal walks", where he plays on the mimetic analogy of agates, fragments of eternity, mat and shiny gold jewels with phantom quartz. The 1990s were imprinted by the use of minerals with increasingly strong colors, what Jean Vendome called "wandering colors" or "colors of freedom". This is the time to escape and dream.

This exhibition is definitely an initiatory journey to the heart of French jewelry design as in certainly not to be missed!

We salute the work of the scientific curator of the exhibition, Ms. Sophie Lefèvre, responsible for the communication strategy for the French museums research and restoration center since 1994, but also author of the monograph on "Jean Vendome, Artist Joaillier", published at the occasion of the "Jean Vendome" exhibition at the Natural History Museum of Lyon (Somogy Editions d’Art, 2000).

A special issue of Connaissance des Arts magazine, dedicated to the exhibition, will be given free of charge to all visitors to guide them during their visit.

In addition 2hr long courses of "Behind the Scenes of the Exhibition", set up by L'Ecole des Arts Joailliers, will allow you to deepen and discover the secrets of the atypical designs by Jean Vendome, explored through a variety of themes.