From Louise Bourgeois to Yoko Ono

For the first time in Germany, the MAKK is presenting a special exhibition on jewelry designs by female visual artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. On display are 113 works by 45 internationally renowned female artists. The selection deliberately focuses on female perspectives and breaks with the male-dominated perception of avant-garde artist jewelry of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Yoko Ono, Imagine Peace ring, 2004. Photo © Damian Noszkowicz, © Yoko Ono.

Elodie Seguin, 8 Look Loop rings, 2024. Photo © Galerie MiniMasterpiece, © Elodie Seguin.

The works provide an insight into art trends from the 1920s to the present day and at the same time open up surprising perspectives on the oeuvre of their creators. Each of the exhibited works condenses an artistic vision into a wearable statement. Formally, some pieces captivate with their reduced aesthetics, others with their expressive, sculptural presence or playful humor.

E. R. Nele, Arrow brooch. Photo © Detlef Schmumacher.com, © E. R. Nele.

Jewelry as a medium of artistic expression translates conceptual approaches, but also personal experiences and emotional processes, into a wearable form. Beyond material values, themes such as identity, physicality, memory, and social role models are negotiated—sometimes playfully, sometimes poetically, or even provocatively. Jewelry thus appears not as an ornament or status symbol, but as a personal, intimate form of expression.

Whether made by hand or by renowned artisans as unique pieces or in small editions, the works on display are always closely related to the individual artistic practice of their creators and add a performative dimension to their oeuvre.

Art, Body, and Identity

The exhibition invites visitors to take a fresh look at the relationship between art, body, and identity and to explore the potential of wearable artworks as a universal form of aesthetic and emotional communication. The diversity of approaches reveals a multifaceted panorama of creative self-assertion and artistic freedom that defines jewelry as an artistic medium across time, cultures, and conventions.

Represented in the exhibition are: Lynda Benglis, Pierrette Bloch, Barbara Bloom, Katinka Bock, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Britton, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Claudia Comte, Sheila Concari, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Nathalia Edenmont, Aube Elléouët, Claire Falkenstein, Ruth Francken, Marcia Grostein, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Annabelle d’Huart, Leiko Ikemura, Margit Jäschke, Jacqueline de Jong, Alicja Kwade, Claude Lalanne, Liliane Lijn, Rita McBride, Blanca Muños, Brigitte Nahon, E. R. Nele, Louise Nevelson, Michele Oka Doner, Yoko Ono, Meret Oppenheim, Françoise Pétrovitch, Armelle de Sainte Marie, Niki de Saint Phalle, Elodie Seguin, Maïlys Seydoux-Dumas, Kiki Smith, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Dorothea Tanning, Rosemarie Trockel, Paloma Varga Weisz, Sophia Vari, Joana Vasconcelos, and Zhou Yiyan.

With the exhibition “From Louise Bourgeois to Yoko Ono,” the MAKK ties in with the collection presentation “Fascination Jewelry. 7000 Years of Jewelry Art at the MAKK,” which presents around 370 objects from the museum’s outstanding jewelry collection from antiquity to the present day. Admission: €7 / reduced €4.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of the same name “From Louise Bourgeois to Yoko Ono. Jewelry by Women Artists” (German/English) is being published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, edited by Petra Hesse and Lena Hoppe with a contribution by Louisa Guiness. The publication is available for €34 at the MAKK and in bookstores (ISBN 978-3-89790-750-8).