Didier Ltd

Didier Ltd, founded by Didier and Martine Haspeslagh, occupies a special niche amongst art and design galleries by specialising in jewels created by modern artists, which have been acquired from the secondary art market. With the benefit of hindsight, the gallery is able to present the finest examples of an artist’s work, where the artistry, design and craftsmanship of the jewel is paramount over its intrinsic value. These jewels range from the most intimate expressions of their art, made as private gifts for their loved ones, to pieces created in editions, as a way to disseminate their art to the widest possible public outside the confines of a museum or art gallery. Jewellery by artists is a growing collecting field with museums starting to exhibit jewels alongside other works of art. Didier Ltd has been very active in loaning jewels to these exhibitions as well as promoting the subject at international art and design fairs and through its gallery catalogues.

For TEFAF New York 2024 the gallery will present a specially curated focus on jewels by American artists. Comprising around 100 works, these jewels will include an early (possible the earliest) necklace by Alexander Calder that dates from 1928 that he made for the Bostonian artist Margarett Sergeant McKean and an unique silver tiara made for Rose Masson, wife of the French artist André Masson, in c. 1942. From the 1940s are two Surreal jewels by Joseph Cornell and Walter Quirt and a later group by Man Ray including his famous Pendants Pending gold spiral earrings. Unique jewels by sculptors in the 1950s and 1960s include pieces by Harry Bertoia, George Rickey, José de Creeft, and Ibram Lassaw, while from the 1960s and 1970s there are Pop Art jewels by Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers and Red Grooms. There will also a be a strong display of jewels by strong women artists including works in painted wood by Louise Nevelson, a silver shackle neckless by Louise Bourgeois, wire and glass works by Claire Falkenstein and more modern works by Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith. In addition there will be a small selection of jewels by European artists including Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Afro and Mirko Basaldella, Arnaldo Pomodoro and Claude Lalanne.