The Brutalism movement in architecture went beyond Modernism’s form and function, rejecting the role of light and clean lines. This new style, emerging c.1950s, created functional buildings intentionally ignoring all the elements of retrospective design.  Building materials were displayed in their original form without decoration, enhancement, or any thought given to aesthetics, often with its infrastructure laid bare. Structures were often composed of repeating elements such as blocks, cubes, and towers with sharp corners, having a severe angular or linear arrangement. Brutalism harked back to the Constructivist movement, turning a blind eye to frills and expensive enhancements.  Post World War II Europe’s desperate need for buildings to replace those lost, combined with keeping costs to a minimum, provided the perfect environment for this form of architecture to flourish.

Art and architecture often go hand-in-hand and while interest in the movement waned c.1970s, its impact can still be found in jewelry design and metal finishes. A Brutalist style of florentine, bark, and faux nugget finishes, along with geometric shapes and seemingly haphazard arrangements of elements enjoyed a brief popularity with jewelry designers.

New techniques experimented with melting gold under controlled temperatures. The result was a profusion of new textures; as well as plain, smoothed or sandblasted gold, the metal could now be chiselled, reeded, hammered, corded and braided, and made to resemble the surface of the moon or the bed of the sea.¹

These seemingly arbitrary jagged shapes found their way beyond daywear jewelry into more traditional diamond and gem-set jewels. Mixing gem shapes and arranging them with abstract and spiky outlines, even the top-tier jewelry houses added these pointy and Brutalist creations to their iconic lines. Alongside the established maisons (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, et al) newer designers making the scene flourished in the style. Andrew Grima of London, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II, excelled at designing in this artistic genre, even his showroom was dubbed “brutalist street furniture.”² Charles de Temple, another London jeweler, famously used this spiky abstract approach to render a ring for the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. ³

As a design style with its roots in Constructivism, Modernism, and Op Art, Brutalist jewelry remains groovy and utterly collectible today.