Editor’s Note
This article previews an upcoming retrospective exhibition for jeweler Dinh Van at Christie’s Paris, celebrating the legacy of its founder. The event continues the auction house’s tradition of showcasing significant jewelry design.
Paris – Retrospectives of designers or unprecedented artistic scenographies, jewelry creation in all its forms is regularly exhibited at Christie’s. While Elie Top celebrated the tenth anniversary of his house last January in the salons of Avenue Matignon, Christie’s once again invites jewelry enthusiasts. From September 3 to 13, the jeweler Dinh Van will be at Christie’s for an unprecedented retrospective paying tribute to its founder, on the occasion of the house’s 60th anniversary.
Bringing together heritage pieces, iconic jewels, and archival documents, the exhibition will allow visitors to rediscover the revolutionary creations of Jean Dinh Van. A pioneer in the exploration of forms and metal, sculptor and jeweler, artisan and artist, Jean Dinh Van invented, from the late 1960s, a modern jewel with pure and minimalist lines that corresponded to the expectations of a new generation of men and women.
The exhibition organized at Christie’s accompanies the publication of a book (Editions Flammarion, by Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter), while a film and two reissues of emblematic pieces complete the house’s tribute to the iconoclastic and avant-garde vision of Jean Dinh Van (1927-2022).
Jean Dinh Van’s creativity was in tune with his time. Fashion and jewelry were then accompanying the women’s emancipation movement. In 1967, inspired by Pierre Cardin, Jean Dinh Van created the legendary “Two Pearls” Ring.
Perfectly at ease in the creative effervescence of the 1960s, he collaborated with Paco Rabanne or even the sculptor César, with whom he was close. Free, creative, and liberated from conventions, Jean Dinh Van’s creations echoed the aspirations of a society in search of meaning and freedom.
By participating in the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair, Jean Dinh Van opened the doors to the American continent. Noticed by Cartier New York, he quickly began a 10-year collaboration with them, which very successfully brought dinh van jewelry across the entire American territory, distributed exclusively by Cartier boutiques. Created in Paris, then manufactured in the United States under the direction of Jean Dinh Van himself, these highly avant-garde jewels bear a rare double signature Cartier Dinh Van.
His innovative creations were quickly noticed. These pieces, co-signed Cartier and dinh van, were distributed throughout North America. Bolstered by this recognition, Jean Dinh Van opened his own boutique on Madison Avenue in 1977 and his creations entered museum collections.
The exhibition is curated by Vanessa Cron, a jewelry historian.