JACQUELINE MINA at 75
JACQUELINE MINA at 75 3 August – 2 September 2017
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 | mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk | www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Front cover: Textured Striptwist Necklace, Aleatoric Series, 2017, 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H19 x W14 cms (cat. 1) Left: Textured Brooch, Aleatoric Series, 2016, 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds, H3.8 x W3.5 cms (cat. 5)
JACQUELINE MINA at 75 The perfect age for a jeweller is not one that can be expressed in years; it is perhaps best defined by the attainment of the optimum combination of tacit skill, physical capacity, experience and restless imagination. Jacqueline Mina at 75 celebrates a jeweller at the height of her powers ready, as she always has been, to embark on the next stage of her artistic and technical development, and the next challenging project. It is a marvellous thing to observe the work of a true master jeweller as it evolves over a creative lifetime. 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the formal start of Jacqueline Mina’s remarkable journey, when she took up a place to study silversmithing at Hornsey College of Art. Jacqueline has now been making jewellery for five and a half decades. Throughout that time her work has grown seamlessly in skill and eloquence, each new exploration using her innate sensibility to build on hard-won knowledge and technical understanding. It is therefore particularly pleasing that Jacqueline Mina at 75 offers a rare opportunity to see her most recent work within the context of a selection of pieces that have preceded it. In 2011 Jacqueline wrote, ‘If I let my imagination run free with gold I find the possibilities are endless’. And so, at 75, she remains fired with passion for this wonderful metal, never content to repeat but instead endlessly excited by the prospect of taking technical risks, to see what might happen. As each body of new work reaches what feels to her like its natural culmination, Jacqueline 2
is already anticipating the next adventure. Neither she nor we know where gold might take her next or, indeed, she might take gold. 2017 is also, remarkably, the 175th anniversary of the founding of The Scottish Gallery. It is significant that Christina Jansen and her staff have chosen Jacqueline Mina’s work to stand at the heart of The Gallery’s year-long celebration. Her jewellery crystallises that magical, elusive mix of the timeless and the fresh, the technically superb and the radically innovative, that locates both Gallery and jeweller at the very top of their fields, and has done so throughout their respective histories. The following words are based on my essay written for the publication accompanying Jacqueline Mina’s Touching Gold exhibition of 2011-12, which toured to Contemporary Applied Arts in London, The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and Ruthin Craft Centre in North Wales. The essay has been revised and updated to incorporate reflections on Jacqueline’s most recent collection of jewellery, Aleatoric Series, which forms part of Jacqueline Mina at 75. ‘Aleatoric’ is a musical term. It describes a musical piece based on a composer’s initial, sketched idea, where its subsequent development depends on elements chosen at random by the performing musician or musicians. The outcome each time is therefore dictated by chance. The aptness of this term to describe Jacqueline’s current (and indeed earlier) work is explored below. ELIZABETH GORING
Jacqueline Mina in her London studio making a striptwist wire for a necklace, 2010 Photo: Harriet Logan 3
TOUCHING GOLD The Art of Jacqueline Mina by Elizabeth Goring
Khrysos [gold] is a child of Zeus; neither moth nor rust devoureth it; but the mind of man is devoured by this supreme possession.1 I have loved gold for as long as I can remember: not for its commercial value, nor for its traditional connotations of wealth, status and power. For me, its appeal lies in the seductive attraction of its warmly glowing colour and fiery glints and, above all, its immutability. It is thrilling to know that buried gold can emerge from the ground looking almost exactly as it did when it was last handled by someone who lived perhaps thousands of years ago. Not only does it not decay, it also preserves the subtlest traces of working and of use, all of which can be clearly seen under a microscope. Gold is uniquely able to provide both a link with the past and an inheritance for the future; and it is goldsmiths who fabricate those time-defying links. Worshippers of Khrysos can easily spot others similarly held in thrall, and Jacqueline Mina is surely a high priestess. ‘I very quickly become absorbed when I begin to manipulate my precious metals and play with them until something magical happens,’ she writes.2 The attributes of gold have provided the essential medium for her self-expression. ‘The versatility of gold’s physical characteristics allows for expressiveness, sensitivity, detail, experimentation, unorthodoxy – characteristics that match well my own inclinations and nature.’3 Jacqueline works directly in the metal, neither preplanning nor drawing, but approaching it intuitively and with the tacit knowledge gained through years of experience. ‘Drawing, which I love, is not something I use for the development of my jewellery ideas on the whole, though I like to do life drawing and occasionally landscape or natural form… I prefer to experiment directly in the materials I intend to use, hoping to come across something I hadn’t thought of.’4 With the confidence born of a complete mastery of her material, she allows gold to become ‘something magical’ in her hands. I first saw Jacqueline’s work in the late spring of 1988, at The Scottish Gallery showing of Joan Crossley-Holland’s 4
wonderful touring exhibition of contemporary ceramics, textiles and jewellery, Shape and Surface. I saw more in the summer of 1989 in British Jewellery at the Crafts Council Gallery, located at that time in Waterloo Place, London. Then in 1991, in Camden Passage, I fell (professionally) in love with a beautiful ring made from a glorious pink shell of the trochidae family, 18ct gold and diamonds. As Curator of Modern Jewellery at the National Museums of Scotland, I was at that time retrospectively collecting ‘organic’ style work of the late 1960s and early 1970s for the museum’s rapidly growing collections of 20th-century jewellery. I was immediately drawn to this shell ring because, while it spoke so clearly of its style and period, it also had such a strongly individual voice. The ring was signed by Jacqueline Mina, and dated 1973, and it quickly joined pieces by John Donald, Andrew Grima and David Thomas in the NMS collections.5 It turned out that there was an important link between Jacqueline Mina and John Donald: she worked for him for six weeks during the summer vacation of 1964, between her second and third years at the Royal College of Art. Having first studied silversmithing at Hornsey College of Art, she was accepted by the Royal College of Art – so long as she agreed to take jewellery instead. ‘Never mind if I hadn’t ever given the merest smidgeon of a thought to the subject of jewellery, until that time. I could, and would – and did – adapt!’6 Full marks to the interviewing panel for spotting Jacqueline’s potential as a jeweller – though it was perhaps for the wrong reasons: they told her that jewellery was ‘more appropriate for a female’.7 There was not much formal jewellery design teaching available at the RCA. ‘I am still mystified as to how I ever learnt anything about design – we never had any formal lectures on the principles of design as far as I remember.’8 Recognising the need to expand her skills, she approached John Donald, one of her jewellery heroes, looking for a holiday job. There, for £5 a week (soon increased to £6), she worked alongside a vastly experienced jobbing jeweller who showed her the best way to hold a file and other similar tricks. She was thrown in at the deep end. Having never worked in gold before, she was required to construct an elaborate hand-crafted chain, and taught to use a form of granulation for embellishing John Donald’s characteristic designs.9 The shell ring was the first of several works by Jacqueline Mina to enter the National Museums of Scotland’s collection over the next few years, as a record of at least some of the continual innovation in Jacqueline’s explorations of gold and 5
platinum. The second acquisition was a part-oxidised 18ct gold brooch with platinum mesh fusion-inlay, which was made in 1991 and purchased in 1993. Surface texture is an important aspect of Jacqueline’s jewellery, and she often compresses sheet metals through steel rolling mills together with a texturing medium such as paper, emery or mesh. For what she calls ‘fusion-inlay’, she devised a technique that involves cutting out patterns in platinum gauze, fusing it to gold, and then rolling the metals in a steel mill. The NMS brooch is an early example of a rich series of platinum and gold jewellery inspired by the chance find of a new medium (platinum gauze and, later, platinum mesh: industrial materials used as catalysts for making fertiliser) combined with an influential visit to Fortuny’s palazzo in Venice. The third acquisition was a delicate ‘felted’ brooch of platinum wire and gold granules from 1996. Mina discovered, again by chance, that platinum could be ‘felted’ from the very fine wires drawn from dismantled platinum gauze. The brooch also features platinum ‘spangles’, tiny discs made from hammered granules at the end of the fine wires, which produce irregular light-reflecting facets. The brooch was followed by two important gold and platinum tesserae rings with movable shanks which had been shown in the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize: Jewellery exhibition in 2000. The Jerwood judges awarded this prestigious Prize to Jacqueline for her ‘consistent innovation and a significant contribution to contemporary jewellery… for subverting and taking precious metal techniques to the extreme.’ Museums have acquired many major pieces of Jacqueline’s jewellery. Public collections can bring a maker’s work to the attention of a diverse audience. They can also place it in a wider cultural and chronological context, and preserve that work for the enjoyment and enlightenment of future generations. However, there is a significant downside. Once an item of jewellery has entered a museum collection, it will never be used as it was originally intended. It cannot be handled without gloves. No one can explore how it works with the body, how its appearance changes in movement or in different lights, or how its texture feels next to the skin. The V&A’s spectacular platinum filigree and gold articulated necklace of 1986 and mima’s platinum and fine gold dust necklace of 2000 are both publicly owned and therefore potentially visible to many. An opportunity to try on the latter while it was part of Jacqueline’s Jerwood Applied Art Prize display, and before it was acquired by mima, revealed how carefully each of the elements had been suspended so as to influence the way the 6
Striptwist Earrings (cat. 29)
Pleated Necklace (cat. 7)
Textured Striptwist Necklace (cat. 1)
necklace hangs in wear, as well as the musical sounds the elements make as they move. Such qualities cannot easily be conveyed through the glass of a vitrine. Other major pieces are in important private collections, including that of a Middle Eastern Princess, and may rarely, if ever, be seen in public. Jewellery is made to be worn, and Jacqueline’s is a particular joy to wear. She understands how a piece of jewellery should make you feel, how its weight and balance affect the way you hold yourself. She knows how it can make your skin glow, how it can flatter the neck, the face, the wrist and the hand. Her jewellery is often sensuous, even sensual. How can a museum display hope to convey such experiences? Jacqueline Mina at 75 offers the welcome possibility of trying on – and perhaps owning – such discreetly seductive examples of jewellery, selected from different phases of her work. Jacqueline’s jewellery subtly reflects some of the multiplicity of influences that have informed it, often quite serendipitously. Exploring those influences with her is revealing. For example, she has a great interest in jewellery of the past. ‘I am conscious of being part of a tradition of goldsmithing’ she says. ‘I am aware that my processes must be very similar to those employed in producing the wealth of jewellery we have inherited from all ages and cultures and which tells us so much about these cultures.’10 In 2001, the Museum of London invited her to participate in research related to the discovery of an important Roman sarcophagus in Spitalfields.11 She was asked to investigate the technique used to make some fragments of gold threads found in the bottom of the coffin. That technique was a form of ‘strip twisting’, a widely-used method of making gold wire in antiquity, in which narrow strips of thin gold sheet are twisted along their lengths, creating a hollow tube with helical (diagonal) striations. She demonstrated this method on an episode of the popular television programme ‘Meet the Ancestors’. Inevitably perhaps, Jacqueline became fascinated with innovative ways of using the technique in her own work. ‘One of the most exciting things I discovered was that when I untwisted the tube, the most beautiful natural curves appeared, resembling the helical form inside a shell. I used this phenomenon to create a new body of work.’ The sensuous Striptwist Earrings (cat. 29) are a simple example of the strip-twist technique, while the sumptuous Pleated Necklace (cat. 7) incorporates a related variant using twisted square wire. The Textured Striptwist Necklace (cat. 1), a glorious and complex necklace made in 2017 as part of the Aleatoric Series, illustrates Jacqueline’s capacity to marry the ancient 7
and the contemporary. It is constructed of three lengths of strip-twisted 18ct gold wires, but no ancient technique lies behind the two bi-metallic elements that adorn those tactile triple strands. This stunning neckpiece is enormously flattering to wear, its understated elegance, weight and semi-rigidity bestowing on it an almost ceremonial aura of dignity. Aware of Jacqueline’s interest in ancient goldsmithing techniques, I once asked her to examine some ring beads on an Egyptian Middle Kingdom (16th century BC) four-stranded gold necklace from a royal burial in the National Museums of Scotland. We had expected the rings to have been made from wires looped into circles with their ends soldered together, but were surprised by how few of the 1,699 small rings bore visible traces of soldered seams. As part of our research Jacqueline explored a way of making ‘seamless’ ring beads by producing gold granules of equal weight, flattening them and forming a central hole with a series of punches. Perhaps this method, or some variation of it, will appear in Jacqueline’s work one day. Jacqueline has always taken an unexpected approach to traditional goldsmithing techniques. ‘I delight in taking liberties wherever I can with the orthodox approach, and in this way I feel I can maintain a healthy attitude to innovation.’ She is unafraid to take risks to see what will happen. She has sprinkled ‘fine gold dust onto platinum, fusing it into it, then rolling it in and texturing the surface’; and she has rolled platinum ‘so thin that it becomes distressed and breaks up into fragments; then used those fragments to create a surface pattern with fusion-inlay technique.’ Other successful experiments have included squeezing discs of metal under pressure through steel rolling mills along with a thickish sheet of paper cut with random slits. As they go through the mill, the round discs become oval and the slits in the paper open up under pressure. Using this process, the metal elements find their own shapes and the lines on their surfaces – responding to the variably widening slits in the paper – are dictated by chance. ‘I discovered that the result was an oval, textured ‘petal’ with shiny raised lines and a naturally scalloped edge between the lines. It was beautiful, and totally natural, and no metal needed to be filed away since it was complete in itself.’ A platinum necklace in the collections of The Goldsmiths’ Company is a magnificent example of this work.12 Chance has always played an important role in Jacqueline’s work, and the title of her current Aleatoric Series makes explicit reference to it. For this series, she began with rectangular pieces of thick gold on to which she fused small 8
Jacqueline Mina in her London studio, 2010 Photo: Harriet Logan 9
rectangular platinum bars; at this stage, the appearance is still controlled. Next, she cut random lines into the edges with a piercing saw and passed the gold and platinum pieces several times through the rolling mill, turning them through 90° with each pass. As the platinum is gradually squeezed into the gold it displaces it, allowing the metal itself to dictate the final form. The edges are left exactly as they emerge: the outcome of chance. Each element therefore has its own characteristics while remaining part of a harmonious, common ‘family’. Most of the Aleatoric pieces are constructed of two layers. The upper layer has a striking outline composed of deep incursions into its edge, the form of which is entirely created by chance; Jacqueline likens these incursions to the spaces between fingers. The spaces are visually filled by a separate convex backplate, slightly less textured than the upper layer to allow the gold to reflect the light in a different way. Jacqueline’s attention to surface texture on all faces of a piece is a key feature of her work. ‘I don’t like to use the metal “as it comes” from the supplier; I always do something to it before beginning to construct the piece.’ She has done this from at least 1966, when she married the Greek Cypriot artist Michael Minas. In those early days of her marriage, working in their ‘bedroomcum-workshop-cum-painting studio’, she taught herself how to melt the surface and edges of very thin silver sheet without melting the whole thing. All Jacqueline’s work exhibits similar meticulous attention to detail. ‘I spend an inordinate amount of time on refining edges so there won’t be any jagged discomfort… Many of my pieces are made of very thin metal. This serves two purposes – it allows for larger areas in a piece (gold is very heavy, platinum is even heavier), but also the thin metal is easier to form than thick metal using the low-tech methods I employ. Thin metal, however, must be strengthened so as not to be ‘tinny’. I usually do this by carefully soldering a round wire along the underside of the edges using a mouth-blown torch. This is a very challenging process, particularly with larger pieces, as I have to be very exact with the placement of my solder; it mustn’t be allowed to melt on to any textured surfaces as it wouldn’t be possible to remove it without spoiling the pre-prepared texture.’ Where diamonds feature in Jacqueline’s jewellery, the rich colours and delicate textures of her metals are invariably enhanced by their light-catching properties. This is especially clear with formally-simple but technically-complex rings such as the gold and platinum rings set with diamonds (cat. 33), where 10
Rings (cat. 33)
Forged Necklace and Pendant (cat. 26)
Textured Brooch (cat. 5)
Wobbly Rings (cat. 23-25)
Textured Wobbly Rings (cat. 2-4)
the diamonds add both visual depth and accents of flashing light to the subtler combination of gold with platinum fusioninlay of their bands. Sometimes, diamonds glint at loosely articulated interconnections between individual elements, as on the Forged Necklace and Pendant (cat. 26). By contrast, they take centre-stage in several Aleatoric Series pieces, such as the Textured Brooch (cat. 5): a reflection of their conceptual origins. In 2016, Jacqueline was invited to take part in a Goldsmiths’ Company closed competition to design a diamond necklace. She set herself the considerable challenge of an innovative approach to setting, seeking to embed the diamonds on the same plane as the rest of the design, strengthened by a platinum backing. Learning through experimentation, she went on to solder a thick piece of platinum to the front of the gold, along which the diamonds are placed in short swathes. Jacqueline also makes jewels to play with. Rings with ‘wobbly’ shanks are a favourite form; they appear in many versions including the Wobbly Rings made in 2015 (cat. 23-25), and three examples from the current Aleatoric Series (cat. 2-4), with their seductively complex outlines for the fingers to trace. Many have multiple bezels, inviting the wearer to explore and adjust their potential spatial interrelationships. ‘Harking back to my silversmithing days (my first metal subject at Hornsey College of Art), I like to forge neck wires and ring shanks, creating a tapered wire with a channel along its length which, I believe, adds some character to the piece it’s intended for.’ The title of the Aleatoric Series makes direct reference to music, an artform very close to her heart. She comes from an exceptionally musical family. Her mother was Kay Hurwitz, a prominent viola player also renowned for her work in youth music education, and long married to Emanuel Hurwitz, the distinguished violinist13. Jacqueline’s brother Michael has been a cellist for many years with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Outstanding musical talent has descended through each successive generation, in one instance unknowingly. At the end of 2016, to her great joy, she was contacted by her longlost son, Peter Oxley. He is a prominent violin bow-maker and restorer with a parallel career as a jazz musician. Prodigious artistic talent runs throughout the family’s DNA. Jacqueline’s husband Michael Minas is a highly-accomplished painter and their daughter, Miraphora Mina, is a well-known graphic designer responsible for the graphic props for films such as the Harry Potter series; while their grandson, Miraphora’s son Luca Caruso, is about to begin his studies as a jazz drummer at the Royal Academy of Music. 11
Jacqueline’s jewellery is suffused with joy, the intense pleasure to be discovered from handling and wearing it flowing directly from the passion with which she invests it as she works with the materials she loves. It is also timeless, effortlessly and elegantly transcending the dictates of fleeting fashion. Jacqueline Mina at 75 offers a treasured opportunity to see what gold can become in the hands of a master, and to acquire an immutable inheritance for the future. ELIZABETH GORING Edinburgh, June 2017
NOTES 1. Pindar, Fragment 222 (trans. John Sandys). Pindar (about 518-438 BC) was the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece. 2. ‘Self Portrait’, (transcript of a lecture given to the Society of Jewellery Historians in April 1993), Jewellery Studies 6 (1993), 59. 3. Introduction to Jacqueline Mina. Dialogues in Gold (The Goldsmiths Company, 2011), the catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the same name curated under the guidance of Amanda Game, and shown at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, from 31 January to 26 February 2011. The catalogue also included an essay by Marina Vaizey. 4. Random Jottings about my work, notes provided by Jacqueline Mina, October 2010. Any unattributed quotes in the text are from this source. 5. Long after Jacqueline’s 1973 shell ring went on display in the National Museums of Scotland’s Modern Jewellery Gallery, I discovered that her jewellery had been seen in that same building before, when it was still known as The Royal Scottish Museum.
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She had shown work in Aspects of Modern British Crafts in – pleasingly, but quite by chance – 1973. In that exhibition, she showed a necklace of 18ct red, white and yellow gold and diamonds; and a ring of 18ct gold with malachite beads. The necklace pendant had a shell-like form. 6. ‘Self Portrait’, 61. 7. ‘Self Portrait’, 61. 8. ‘Self Portrait’, 62. 9. Personal communication, March 2011. For John Donald’s jewellery, see John Donald and Russell Cassleton Elliott, Precious Statements. John Donald (McNidder & Grace, Carmarthen, Wales, 2015. 10. ‘Self Portrait’, 63. 11. www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/ EventsExhibitions/Permanent/roman/spt.htm 12. The necklace appears on the front cover of Jacqueline Mina. Dialogues in Gold (see note 3). 13. www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/jul/16/ kayhurwitz-obituary
Jacqueline Mina in her London garden, 2017 Photo: Michael Minas 13
1. Textured Striptwist Necklace, Aleatoric Series, 2017 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay H19 x W14 cms 14
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Clockwise from top: 2. Textured Wobbly Ring, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds, size N 3. Textured Wobbly Ring, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds, size N 4. Textured Wobbly Ring, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds, size P 16
5. Textured Brooch, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds H3.8 x W3.5 cms
6. Earrings, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, diamonds H1.9 x W1.8 cms
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‘Hers is a subtle alchemy that breathes into the gold an undreamt-of softness. Beauty seems to be infused rather than imposed with fire or hammer.’ Clare Phillips, Jewellery Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
7. Pleated Necklace, 2016 18ct gold with side hook fastening H18 x W15 cms 18
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8. Earrings, 2014 18ct gold H2 x W1.5 cms
9. Earrings, 2014 18ct gold H1.7 x W1.7 cms
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10. Textured and Pleated Brooch, 2014 18ct gold H6.1 x W4 cms
11. Brooch, 2011 18ct gold H3.5 x W4 x D1.5 cms
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Clockwise from top: 12. Stripe Textured Earrings, 2009 18ct gold, H2 xW2 cms 13. Striptwist Earrings, 2017 18ct gold, H2.3 x W0.3 cms 14. Earrings, 2017 platinum, 18ct gold, H1.1 x W0.7 cms 15. Textured Earrings, 2017 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H1.4 x W1.3 cms 22
16. Brooch, 2015 18ct gold, bronze patinated titanium H6.2 x W5 cms 23
17. Narrow Striptwist Necklace, 2015 18ct gold, D12.2 cms 24
18. Necklace, 2017 18ct gold, grey tourmaline, marquise cabouchon moonstone, H30.5 x W16 cms 25
19. Oval Brooch, 1990 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H3 x W4.8 cms 20. Brooch, 1989 18ct gold, platinum gauze fusion inlay, H5.5 x W5.57 cms 26
21. Swivel Brooch, 1993 18ct gold, platinum, platinum gauze fusion inlay, H11 x W3 cms 22. Brooch, 1989 platinum, diamonds, 18ct gold back, H2.8 x W4.5 cms 27
Clockwise from top: 23. Wobbly Ring, 2015 18ct gold, platinum, platinum fusion inlay, rainbow moonstone cabochon, size O½ 24. Wobbly Ring, 2015 18ct gold, platinum, platinum fusion inlay, grey moonstone cabochon, size Q 25. Wobbly Ring, 2015 18ct gold, platinum, platinum fusion inlay, rainbow moonstone cabochon, size R 28
26. Forged Necklace and Pendant, 2004 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, diamonds H11.5 x W21.5 cms (necklace) H10.5 x W3 cms (pendant) 29
27. Striptwist Necklace, 2014 18ct gold, D14 cms 28. Striptwist Bangle, 2014 18ct gold, H6.5 x W7 cms 30
Clockwise from top: 29. Striptwist Earrings, 2015 18ct gold, H6 x W2 cms 30. Striptwist Earrings, 2015 18ct gold, H3 x W0.5 cms 31. Earrings, 1996 18ct gold, platinum, H2.1 x W2.1 cms 31
32. Wobbly Ring, 2011 18ct gold, diamonds, size O½ 33. Rings, 2009-2016 18ct gold, platinum, platinum fusion inlay, diamonds, size N½ - U 32
Clockwise from top: 34. Brooch, Aleatoric Series, 2015 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H2.5 x W4.5 cms 35. Earrings, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H2 x W2 cms 36. Earrings, Aleatoric Series, 2016 18ct gold, platinum fusion inlay, H2.2 x W2.2 cms 33
JACQUELINE MINA BORN Buckinghamshire, England, 1942 EDUCATION Hornsey College of Arts and Crafts, 1957-62 Royal College of Art, 1962-65 SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh Leeds Museums and Galleries The Crafts Council, London Victoria & Albert Museum, London The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art Museum of Art & Design, New York Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, New York Alice & Louis Koch Collection SELECTED DISTINCTIONS 2012 Awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to art 2000 Winner, Jerwood Applied Arts Prize: Jewellery 1995 Lady Liveryman, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths 1985 Freeman of the City of London, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2017 Jacqueline Mina at 75, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2016 Out of This World, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2015 A Sense of Jewellery, Goldsmiths Centre, London 2015 Modern Masters, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2014 30 Years in The Making, Lesley Craze Gallery, London 2011-12 Touching Gold Solo Tour, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Ruthin Crafts Centre 2011 Dialogues in Gold, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London 2010 Drawing with Objects, Contemporary Applied Arts, London 2009 La Crème, Lesley Craze Gallery, London 2005 L’or, Bijoux d’Europe, touring France 2004 Or gold, Flow Gallery, London, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh and Ruthin Craft Centre 2003 Silver Sparks – The Bishopsland Connection, The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, London 2002 Jacqueline Mina – Celebrating Sixty, Lesley Craze Gallery, London and The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2001 The Ring, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and Ruthin Craft Centre 2000 Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2000: Jewellery, Crafts Council, London 2000 Schmuck, Munich 1998 British Gold Italian Gold, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh and touring Italy 1998 Jewellery Moves, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh 1995 Modern British Jewellery, Landesmuseum, Mainz 1994 What is Jewellery?, Crafts Council, London 1993 Jacqueline Mina – New Work in Platinum and Gold, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1992 British Goldsmiths of Today, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London 1988 Shape and Surface, Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury and touring 1985 Jacqueline Mina, Victoria & Albert Museum, London 1980 Jacqueline Mina, Oxford Gallery, Oxford 1979 Jacqueline Mina, Argenta Gallery, London 1976 Realist Jewellery, Oxford Gallery, Oxford 1975 Jacqueline Mina – Gold Jewellery, Crafts Advisory Committee, London 1973 The Craftsman’s Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1965 Jewellery 65, Ewan Phillips Gallery, Maddox Street, London 35
Jacqueline Mina would like to thank the following: All those who have shown enthusiasm for my work – collectors, both public and private, students and educators. Christina Jansen, Kirsty Sumerling and Elizabeth Jane Campbell, for moral support, and for attention to detail in all aspects of preparation for this exhibition and its catalogue. Elizabeth Goring for an insightful and sensitive introductory essay. My husband, the artist Michael Minas, for his constructive criticism and for always being at my side.
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition JACQUELINE MINA AT 75 3 August – 2 September 2017 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery/jacquelinemina ISBN 978-1-910267-64-6 Designed by Kenneth Gray Printed by Barr Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 | mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk | www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Right: Textured Ring, 2016, 18ct gold, platinum, diamonds, size N½ 36