Inspiration: Enduring Splendor Exhibition at the Fowler Museum

Inspiration: Enduring Splendor Exhibition at the Fowler Museum

I recently went to an exquisite little exhibit at the Fowler Museum at UCLA called “Enduring Splendor – Jewelry of India’s Thar Desert”. If you’re a fan of big, chunky, “ethnic” looking jewelry (for lack of a better term) as I obviously am, and/or if you’re fascinated by the history of jewelry (me again) this would be an excellent detour for you when you have a little time to kill. It will be at the Fowler until June 18th.

Excerpted and paraphrased from the Fowler Museum website: “Enduring Splendor focuses on the rich and diverse silver jewelry traditions of India’s Thar Desert region, which are considered against the background of the five-thousand-year history of jewelry making across the vast Indian Subcontinent. The exhibi­tion includes important sculptures and paintings borrowed from LACMA demonstrating the profusion and variety of jewelry worn by Hindu gods and goddesses in ancient times and by maharajas and maharanis from the 17th to early 19th centuries. Enduring Splendor explores the life and work of four sonis (silversmiths or goldsmiths). To contextualize their recent production, the exhibition features an extensive survey of 19th- and 20th-century jewelry types that are still worn by men and women of the region.”

Here are a bunch of photos I took to whet your appetite.

Now these are what I call statement bracelets:

  

And you need not wear much other jewelry when you’ve got these earrings on:

  

I think I’m going to have to go back again to really savor these before the exhibit ends.