From 19 to 24 November, PIASA is organising an Online Only sale dedicated to jewels by artists and designers. A true speciality of the house, these creations will be showcased through a set of pieces considered as real miniature portable works of art. Several pieces by Belgian jeweler Claude Wesel will be on display during this sale.
Although he has often taken up painting and sometimes claimed to want to translate his jewels into monumental sculpture one day, Claude Wesel is above all an accomplished goldsmith. Born in Belgium in 1942, he began his artistic training at the Ecole des Métiers d'art de Mareouds, where he rubbed shoulders with other future precursors of the modernity of Belgian jewellery such as Didier Cogels, Siegfried de Buck and Michel Mousset.
He continued his studies at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs de la Cambre in Brussels and participated in 1969 in the international exhibition "Art and Jewelry" within the "Atelier Demaret group". Founded in Brussels in 1961 by the goldsmiths André Lamy and Fernand Demaret, this workshop allows young artists to express their creativity and marks in Belgium the first opening towards a jewel of modern design.
Claude WESEL (1942-2014)
Ring “Ying et Yang” - 2011
Estimate : 2 500 / 3 000€
Regarded as one of the leading figures in contemporary Belgian jewelry, Claude Wesel creates complex compositions with bold shapes and lines. Often inspired by nature, he translates plant and animal forms into a mechanical and abstract language. All his creations are of great elegance and formal simplicity, making them new classics.
Also a perfect technician, Claude Wesel masters to perfection the goldsmith's techniques such as the age-old lost wax process, the setting of stones or pearls, or even enamel. Passionate about materials, this jeweler likes to combine the most varied materials, such as tortoiseshell, ivory or Plexiglas, in his creations, thus creating a dialogue between precious metals, organic matter and industrial materials.
Claude Wesel has marked the history of jewelry with his unique pieces of exceptional quality, many of which are now in public collections. The Schmuckmuseum in Pforzheim, the French plastic arts community, the Diamond Museum in Antwerp and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston hold several of his pieces.
Claude WESEL
"Sculpture" Necklace
Estimate : 6500 / 8000 €
Bibliography :
Johan Valckle and Pierre-paul Dupont, Bijoux Belges Contemporain, Mardaga 1995.
