Munich Day 7

Hi again,

I know you all probably haven’t yet recovered yet from my last 2 days of jewelry jewelry jewelry. Suddenly all the nice comments dried up - that is how I know your eyes are glazing over. So for a treat today I have assembled mostly pictures of people and buildings to amuse you. Not so much jewelry, just a little. But first I wanted to mention that the Collectors panel is available for viewing on Facebook at this address. Also just to get an idea of how many locations there are in Munich you can see a map that allows you to follow which shows are where. An intern for AJF put it together. Really fantastic and very helpful when you want to figure out where to go next.

Saturday, March 10th

Same breakfast. Again cold and crisp but with a bit of rain at the end of the day. The yellow blooms are witch hazel which is the first sign of spring here. For some reason, I always love that tree. It is on my walk from the hotel down towards the museums.

I had a leisurely morning with lunch at a local place with Bella Neyman to discuss “New York Jewelry Week” which she is trying to put together to resemble the Munich Jewelry week in November of this year. I know it has taken about 50 years for the Munich event to grow as large as it is so it will be a while before New York is so successful.

After lunch I went to see the show at the Pinakothek which was called Jablonec ’68. It was a show of work produced at that time by a small group of artists and once I have read the catalog I will be able to tell you more. But it was interesting to me that this group event took place the exact same year that an American event called Summervail started with a small group of American jewelers.

Hermannn Junger Pavel Krbátek

Then I went back to the fair to see the presentations of the Hoffmann award and the AJF award but in the meantime I stopped in to study the rings by Ester Brinkmann who is an older jeweler I had never heard of but I loved the rings. Also here is a photo of Marie-Jose from Galerie Marzee and my favorite dealer and Rebekah Frank - ED of AJF.

Hoffmann awards went to Julia Maria Künnap and I tried to buy this brooch but the museum got there before me. The other winner is Lin Cheung with the purple round brooch. I did not get the name of the third winner...

AJF announced their winner at the fair. There were 5 finalists and Bifei Cao, from China, was the winner. Turns out that not only is their work on display here at the fair but also Sofia Bjorkmann from Platina Gallery will have a show with them at her gallery in Sweden after this and Bifei has just opened a gallery in China and will also show all the finalist there. So he will get $7500 but all the finalists will have a chance to be seen in different parts of the world.

That night AJF celebrated Bifei as the winner at a dinner with AJF members. We finally found a better restaurant than the one we used in past years and I think most everyone was happy with it. I was sitting across from 3 of the young writers who were on the Friday panel which was so interesting. One was a Russian Jew who was now living in Israel but wants to go to Sweden. Another was Italian and the other was Estonian. There is also an artist award finalist missing from the photo from Lativa - near the Russian border who is now studying in Sweden. Also sitting next to me is Petra Holscher, the curator from the Pinakothek.

Sunday March 11th

Ok, this day started with a walk to meet Nicholas Estrada, Atty Tantivit and Rebekah for a chat and that happen at a pastry shop (yeah Ralph). I am not going to say much more about the day but I just tried to give you a feeling of the streets and buildings in Munich that I saw on my walks. The day ended with a purchase of a Lucy Sarneel necklace.