Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum
| Jewelry Designs 1950-1990 The lLJM is the only contemporary jewelry museum devoted to the work of the jeweler working in the 20th century. The permanent collection created between the 50's and the 90's, construct the beginning of a new era in the history of jewelry, which is confirmed with the election of Ilias Lalaounis to be the first jeweler member in the Academie des Beaux Arts, Institute de France in 1990. The uniqueness of Ilias Lalaounis' jewelry design is traced in the sources of inspiration that he seeks, the employment of the theory that jewelry belongs in the applied arts, as well as the fine arts, and the revival of ancient greek jewelry techniques. The presentation of 45 collections displayed in the museum has been arranged in six sections according to the sources of inspiration. The first three sections present twenty eight collections that have been inspired by the history of an, while the rest show the influence of contemporary social, political, artistic changes and technological advances on the artist during the 70's, 80's and the 90's. |
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| Fig 1 From the Dawn of Art section. "Set of jewelry in 22k gold inspired by a ribbon", from the Palaeolithic - Neolithic Collection, 1969. |
| In the first section, the Dawn of Art, one finds the study of prehistoric man through collections such as the "Dawn oE Europe" and the "Palaeolithic". The goldsmith uses 22k gold and semi-precious stones to carve scenes of every day life inspired by cave paintings or tools from the prehistoric period. The realisation suggests a combination of abstract with powerful but simple designs to befit the taste of women in the late 1960's. |
| Fig 2 From the Technology - Biology section, "To the Moon and Back", necklace in 18k gold with diamonds showing the course of a spaceship to the moon and back to earth, from the Motion in Space Collection, 1974. |