I have fond memories of moments from my childhood when I stood in front of paintings, sculptures or embossed copper plate reliefs by my great-uncle Alfredo Bortoluzzi. Copperplate images from foreign cultures, a family crest with a helmet, crown and stork.
This is what touched me deeply as a child
and always magically attracted.
The material copper, the fine chasing - it was a mystery to me
where they came from and how they were made.
My mother kept telling me about "Uncle Freddy", my grandfather's brother, the artist, the Bauhäusler.
An architect friend of mine drew my attention to the upcoming Bauhaus anniversary in early 2018.
Years before, I kept coming across the footsteps of my great-uncle, whose life was like a novel.
But I never got as deep into this matter as I was to do in the months that followed.
He studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau under Paul Klee and was an enthusiastic member of the Bauhaus stage under the direction of Oskar Schlemmer.
But in 1933 the Nazis banned him from painting. He won a prestigious ballet competition at the Paris Opera and worked there for two years as a solo dancer. In 1936 Herbert von Karajan brought him to the opera in Aachen. Then he became a choreographer at the Wroclaw Opera.
In 1943 the Nazis put him in a labor camp near Auschwitz. During the day he had to dig anti-tank ditches against the Red Army and dance for the soldiers at night. But he was able to escape and in 1946, together with Kandinsky and Klee, curated the first exhibition on “degenerate art” in Heidelberg. Then he built the Baden
State Ballet in Karlsruhe again. After a serious accident, he emigrated to Apulia with his friend in the 1950s and built a Bauhaus-style house there, right by the sea.
They posed as brothers and had employed a housekeeper who posed as the wife of one. But at some point she became pregnant by a man from the fishing village. The story blew up. But the two artists were now so popular in the village that this never became a problem.
He died in 1995. His works are now kept in a Fondazione in Foggia.
I researched his story together with my mother and the journalist Barbara Hein for the “Art” magazine, with the help of the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin and the Paul Klee Center in Bern, among others.
I traveled to Peschici in Apulia, found his house, studied his estate and kept coming across Paul Klee.
When I started working on my Echos collection, everything was still very hazy.
I had great respect for researching this topic. After all, it fills entire rooms in libraries, endless, agonizing book tossing rolled towards me.
After slowly familiarizing myself with the matter, I was drawn more and more into it.
I quickly realized: THE Bauhaus doesn't exist. A school that changed locations three times in a short period of time, had three directors, in a time notorious for its political and social excesses. This is more than just a few design classics, buildings and state institutions trying to celebrate an anniversary.
„Genesis“
Ring made of 18kt yellow gold with 0.56ct
Rough diamonds and 0.19ct grey-pink diamond
Price: €1,800.00
"Secret Nearby"
18kt peach gold ring, 1.20ct
Tourmaline and 0.05ct colored diamonds
Price: €3,200.00
I decided to dedicate a whole year to this sensitive topic of German history.
But what should a Bauhaus-inspired collection look like?
The three basic forms are the most memorable Bauhaus elements for me and probably for everyone.
triangle, square and circle. In the three basic colors yellow, red and blue.
These three elements should reveal a different perspective to me. At the Bauhaus you have to think outside the box.
In the period in which the Bauhaus emerged, after all the decorative and magnificent epochs that were characterized by religious opulence, imperially uniformed militarism and nationwide folklore, unconditional progress with the accelerating fire of the First World War drove the end of the 20th century industrial revolution like a wild sow over the earth!
After the end of the First World War, this opulence was brought to a harsh end. Destruction, suffering and housing shortages gripped the young republic.
At the same time, the streets were full of visions, electric lights and automobiles. Modernism exploded in the metropolises, and this modernism needed a school – the Bauhaus.
Paradoxically, the cornerstones of this "modern school" drew on institutions as ancient as crafts. student and master.
A holistic, artistic-technical training that should train the new person all-encompassing.
The Bauhaus offered young people a training ground for the future.
Both in dealing with new technologies and in political and social issues, the Bauhaus was preparing to be free!
„Adaptions
-verlauf“
Zweifingerring aus 18kt Gelbgold mit 4,05ct Diamanten im Farbverlauf von hellbraun nach dunkelbraun Preis: 18.000,00 €
Back to the echoes.
Colours.
My great-uncle studied with Paul Klee in Dessau.
Paul Klee had a magical attraction for me.
His color theories, mathematical-graphic drawings on color and form theory.
"I have to become a crystal," as Paul Klee once said during the time of World War I, to protect himself from the brutal reality of the time.
at
„Echos“
it's mostly about color. The representation of colors to be enjoyed without distracting, "emphasizing adjectives".
The task is to build a framework that makes colors visible and supports them.
As an example, the necklace "In the center" - made of simple, delicate rectangles that are filled with window enamel and form a color gradient.
Extremely complex to produce, but in the end easy and absolutely self-evident.
The color comes in different forms in the jewelry.
I work with enamel and lacquer, with precious stones and epoxy resins. With different color gold alloys and plating.
Echoes are used to describe the weakening reverberation of a "big bang" - until it is completely silent.
What remains is the memory.
The jewelry should make this memory wearable, become the Big Bang itself and fade into an echo over time.
Until, perhaps, he is rediscovered.
"walking the dog"
18kt Peach Gold, 1 Smaragd 2,57ct, 1 Smaragd 2,05ct, 4 Tourmaline 1,94ct, 1 Mali Garnet 0,43ct, Pink Saphire 1,12ct, 1 Spinell 0,7ct
Price: €16,200.00
Thek“
18kt yellow gold ring with a 1.64ct lemon opal, 1.55ct yellow rough diamonds and 1.35ct green diamonds
Price: €8,900.00
