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August Issue 2003
Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Linda MacNeil
Glass scholar Dan Klein referred to the necklaces of Linda MacNeil as "ultimate wearable art - sculptures that just happen to be displayed upon a neck." Early in her career, art critics and collectors alike were drawn to her consummate craftsmanship, keenly intelligent and joyful use of color, and bold handling of geometric forms.
MacNeil is considered one of America's foremost jewelry artists, a reputation built through her emphasis on imagination and technical virtuosity in creating beautiful, comfortable designs. In a culture obsessed with the intrinsic value of precious materials, MacNeil chose the greater creative freedom inherent in metal and glass as her media of choice. Showcasing over 20 years of creative exploration, the retrospective exhibition Sculptural Radiance: The Jewelry and Objects of Linda MacNeil will open Aug. 9 and continue through Nov. 23, 2003 at Charlotte, NC's Mint Museum of Craft + Design. Organized by guest curator Suzanne Ramljak, the exhibition will survey MacNeil's artistic evolution in highlighting 50 works from her key series, allowing viewers to trace the development of her design concepts and her original approach to different materials.
Trained as a metalsmith at the Rhode Island School of Design, MacNeil began searching for a supplement to metal even as an undergraduate. Her early geometric sculptures combined commercial plate glass, granite, ivory and ebony with metal as the connecting device, inspired by an interest in mechanical and architectural structures. Her use of glass and metal began with her Hand Mirror series in the late 1970s.
"Glass was a terrific solution," remarked MacNeil. "The many types of glass I use from vitrolite (an industrial opaque plate glass) to transparent lead crystal glass, allows me to explore its changing characteristics. It can be highly polished and reflective, or softly translucent and glowing. My forms may be hard edged and mechanical, or abstract and organic."
MacNeil's interest in historic jewelry led her to focus on the traditional form of the neckpiece, which became the mainstay of her creative expression.
In her Glass Elements series of the early 1980s, MacNeil employed a wide variety of compositional arrangements, with multi-colored, richly-hued opaque Vitrolite elements strung or linked together in flexible fashion. In the Lucent Line series that followed, the reflective properties of glass are heightened through polishing, faceting and even the inclusion of mirrors in classic arrangements of connected components loosely orbiting the neck.
Free flowing forms gave way to strong contours in her Neck Collar series in the late 1980s where metal is enlisted as an outline for glass shapes, resulting in bold geometric compositions centered on the wearer's chest. Diverse historic sources, including ancient Egyptian, African, Celtic, Art Deco and Art Nouveau, served as sculptural inspiration for this series.
"The neck collars are probably my most sculptural necklaces because the functional restrictions are minimal and the format invites an inventive approach," stated MacNeil.
Returning to the technique of pâte de verre in the mid 1990s, the pendant became even more of a focal point in her Mesh Necklace series. Cast glass was selected to achieve softened light effects, with the glass pendants hanging like glowing amulets from gold mesh rope.
A residency at the historic crystal factory in Waterford, Ireland led to the Waterford Crystal series of 1998-99. Instead of the characteristic coldness and sharp facets often found in lead crystal pieces, MacNeil produced works with warmth and subtle light effects. The gently-flowing crystal contours are linked by organic elements such as the recurrent lotus form. The striking Lotus Necklace featured on the cover of United in Beauty. The Jewelry and Collectors of Linda MacNeil , published by SchifferBooks and available hardcover for $59.95 at the Mint Museums Shops (704/337-2038 or sfisher@mintmuseum.org) is part of the permanent collection of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
Another MacNeil necklace in the Mint collection, Nile Midnight from her most recent Floral Necklace series, represents her artistic path from geometric minimalism to greater organicism.
"A pod or a flower in full bloom is an irresistible beginning for a jewelry design," stated MacNeil. "Nature has already mastered the mechanics. My challenge is to interpret the plant and to make a piece of jewelry. What is so interesting to me is that plant life can be extremely complex and feminine and also be simple and quite masculine. The colors are also inspiring, and I have responded to nature in many of the glass color combinations."
"Wearability is an important criterion to the owners of my neckpieces so I focus on form as it relates to the body," said MacNeil. "I find this challenging because I am creating jewelry which I intend to be significant artistically as well as user-friendly."
"I strive to know the medium extremely well and learn its many boundaries for my designs," stated MacNeil. "My thought process is a metamorphosis of past ideas and experiences blending into new thought. I draw, I make models and I experiment. Although each idea is based on pat designs, I try to move ahead to discover new combinations. My favorite part of the job is the moment of decision to proceed from thinking and planning to the actual making of the piece. The excitement of this step is very special because the design phase of my work is a struggle. I feel a great relief when I begin to work three dimensionally."
MacNeil began her prodigious career as a metalsmith while she was still a teenager. Crafting wire jewelry in a basement studio set up by her father, she successfully sold the pieces on the street to passersby. MacNeil grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, in a family filled with creative individuals, from her father who designed machinery to her clothing designer mother to relatives who were architects. Committed to art at an early age, MacNeil studied at the Philadelphia College of Art and the Massachusetts College of Art, where she was introduced to glass and her future husband, Dan Dailey. She received her B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976.
Upon graduation, MacNeil started exhibiting her work in commercial galleries and soon gained recognition for her talent. Indeed, one of her first exposures at the Cooper & French Gallery in Providence, earned her praise alongside Dale Chihuly in a Craft Horizons review. She has since shown in many distinguished galleries including Heller Gallery, New York; Habatat Galleries, Florida; Hawk Galleries, Ohio; Leo Kaplan Modern, New York; and Imago Galleries, California. Her work has also been featured in American Craft, and major articles have appeared in Neues Glas, and Metalsmith. MacNeil's metal-and-glass sculpture and jewelry has been acquired by several prestigious museums, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC. In addition, MacNeil's artistic accomplishments have been recognized by both the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
MacNeil has shared her consummate skill and aesthetic vision-marked by an Art Deco inspired elegance and economy of form-with students at the Pilchuck Glass School; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts; Rhode Island School of Design; and at the Miasa Center and the Niijima Glass Center in Japan. Although she has worked in various formats, including sculpture, windows, and architectural installations, jewelry has been the mainstay of her career. MacNeil applies the same love of material, technical precision, and clarity of form to all her work, while meeting the additional challenge of wearability in her jewelry.
Suzanne Ramljak, the exhibition's guest curator, is an art historian, writer, and curator with a specialty in the field of twentieth-century art. Since Jan. 2001, she has been editor of Metalsmith magazine. Prior to this she served as curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts for five years. She was formerly editor of Sculpture magazine and of Glass magazine, as well as associate editor of American Ceramics magazine. Ramljak has contributed to several catalogues and publications-including Crafting a Legacy: Contemporary American Crafts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2002); One of A Kind: American Art Jewelry Today (1994); and Turning Wood into Art: The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection (2000)-as well as writing for Artnews, Art & Antiques, and The New York Times Book Review. She has lectured widely on twentieth-century art with a particular emphasis on issues relating to material culture and sculptural concerns. Ramljak has worked in the curatorial departments of the University of Michigan Museum of At, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Detroit Institute of Arts. She has served as guest curator for several exhibitions including Seductive Matter (1995), Divine Flesh: Contemporary Goddess Imagery (1996), Romancing the Brain (1999), Daniel Jocz: Uncommon Sense (2000), and Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk (2000). Ramljak hold's a master's degree in art history from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Philosophy in art history from the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she is currently completing her dissertation.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the museum at 704/337-2000 or on the web at (www.mintmuseum.org).
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