This publication is the catalogue of a retrospective exhibition on the work of pioneer jeweller Margaret De Patta. A seminal figure in the American Modernist Jewellery movement, De Patta trained as a painter in the Bay Area and at the Art Students League in New York. She began studying jewellery design in San Francisco, but her major learning experience was at Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's School of Design in Chicago (1940-41). Distinguished as one of the few American jewellers whose work and ideas were allied to the evolving ideas presented in the modern art movement, De Patta's work was heavily influenced by the Constructivists and features architectural forms with simple lines, structure, and often movable parts. Space - Light - Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta features more than sixty jewellery pieces as well as ceramics, flatware, photographs, pictograms, and newly released archival material. Contents: Foreword - Holly Hotchner Foreword - Lori Forgarty Acknowledgements Margaret De Patta: A Modernist's Vision - Ursula Ilse-Neuman Balancing Act: Margaret De Patta and Constructivism - Glenn Adamson Plates Jewelry for a Never-Increasing Minority: Margaret De Patta in the Marketplace - Julie M. Muniz Timeline and Selected Exhibition History Bibliograrphy Index AUTHOR: Ursula Isle-Neuman is MAD Curator of Jewellery. She is the author of Inspired Jewelry (ACC Editions, 2009) and co-author of GlassWear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry (Arnoldsche, 2007). Julie Muniz is Associate Curator of Craft sDecorative Art at the Oakland Museum. She is the co-author of Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft (MFA Publications, 2007). SELLING POINTS: ?Margaret De Patta is one of the most influential American women jewellers. One of the participants of the cult exhibit Modern Handmade Jewelry organised by MoMA in 1946 ?De Patta's work is highly collected and now housed in many museums, including MoMA, MFA Boston, Guggenheim and the Art Institute of Chicago ILLUSTRATIONS: 117 colour b35 b/w illustrations
