ABOUT THE ARTIST

The French artists Francoise and Claude Chavent live and work in the south of France. Both were born in 1947. They come to the fabrication of jewelry from different backgrounds, she, from literature and he, from chemistry. Working together, they craft their impeccable designs in a studio outside Montpellier.

ABOUT THE WORK

“Our purpose is to bring volume and movement to forms that should be light, taught and perhaps ambiguous. We use perspective and trompe l’oeil to do so. “Hammering will stretch the metal and edge lines, ever so sparsely. When the piece is absolutely flat, the illusion is created by the reflection of light over different textures. Ideally, we want to simplify more and more, so that the distance is the shortest from the concept to the object.” – from the artists’ resume

“…Together, the two artists make jewelry, extremely beautiful jewelry---small pieces imbued with meaning and mystery, sometimes pledges of love, displaying art and skill… They are not ordinary pieces, but recognizable because they are so close to their designers’ wishes that they are like a series of self-portraits, unmistakably signed… They are sublime and hieratic, light imprinted with purity and with the absolute…free of baroque ornamentation and close to the intelligent, absolute beauty of unclouded feelings and as close as possible to desire.”  – Henri-Michel Morat

 

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2002 Schmuckszene (Munchen)
2001 Bienalle du Bijou Contemporain (Nimes)
Barbara Schulte-Hengesbach (Dusseldorf)
2000 “Precieux Present” (Roanne)
Galaeria Helene Poree (Paris)