During Schmuck this year, on Friday the 18th of March to be specific, a retrospective show of Peter Skibuc’s work opening at the Pinakothek Der Moderne in Munich. I went along, dragged by Jessica and Elizabeth as they found me skulking around the Italian’s show (about to head to the hotel to drop my shopping – Helen Britton catalogue etc – and have dinner accompanied by a stiff drink…) while they were en route to the Museum.
Turned out it was just about the best show all day. (I did see eleven shows that day, so I’m restraining a little cos I can’t remember all of them…)
It really was/is a great show. After standing amongst his sculptures that were all mounted on head-high plinths as if they were jewellery, then bending down to see his smaller recent works, I had an epiphany. I finally ‘got’ his work. I’d studied his stuff before (planes of precision cut stainless steel strung on stainless cable… How could I not?) but pictures on the internet and seeing the many pieces being worn by collectors that night, and of course the many more on display, are two completely different things.
And then Bettina Dittlmann enlightened us on the colours he uses. He thinks like an engineer, so the colours have to have a system. You can’t just choose them on a whim, I hear you ask? Of course not! So, you come up with an alphabet of colours and probably shapes too, I’m guessing. So the use of a colour is dictated by the spelling of different words. What words? Well, Bettina informed us that somewhere in the collection is a brooch that spells her name. Awww. Wonder if he’s ever done a Melissa?
The video in this post was found on the Panie Przodem blog. Very cool.