Diane Venet Jewelry Collection at Norton Museum of Art

The Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach) hosts Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection, a selection of over 150 pieces of jewelry made by some of the most significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, from the collection of Diane Venet. These pieces will be displayed alongside approximately 60 two- and three-dimensional artworks from the Norton’s collection from April 12, 2025, to October 5, 2025.

This will be the first occasion that pieces from Venet’s collection will be exhibited alongside companion artworks by many of the same artists. This display will establish a visual dialogue between the jewelry and the paintings or sculptures made by these artists, articulating the artists’ technical range and varying sources of inspiration.

Diane Venet has been a stalwart figure in the international art world for her entire life; born in Paris to a family of art collectors, she followed in her parents’ footsteps and became a passionate collector after pursuing a career as a radio and television host.

Married to French artist Bernar Venet, she assisted her husband in organizing exhibitions around the world and met notable creatives like Frank Stella, whom she persuaded to create a unique piece of jewelry just for her, and Robert Rauschenberg, who gave her an eye-catching, avant-garde brooch. Venet appreciates that each piece exemplifies the creative challenges encountered by the artists when forced to translate their practice from a large-scale display to something small, wearable, and deeply personal.

Diane Venet Jewelry Collection

“Diane Venet’s collection is second to none. The necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings, headpieces, and more that she has collected feature incredible details rendered in interesting materials by some of the most famous artists of our time,” Ghislain d’Humières, Norton Museum of Art Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO, said. “Displayed alongside paintings and sculptures by many of the same artists from the Norton’s Collection, Artists’ Jewelry is an unmissable opportunity to broaden museumgoers’ understanding of their favorite artists’ oeuvres through these miniature works of art.”

The exhibition will include jewelry by Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Rashid Johnson, Yayoi Kusama, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Niki de Saint Phalle, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, and many others. While some pieces are made from hammered metals, precious stones like rubies and diamonds, and precise wiring techniques, others are made from found objects and pieces of metal, plastic, and other unconventional materials. The pieces showcased within Artists’ Jewelry strike a balance between fine art and popular culture, allowing visitors the opportunity to view works by familiar artists in a new context.

Also included are emblematic charms by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, whimsical headpieces by Claude Lalanne and Man Ray, surreal brooches by Dorothea Tanning and Salvador Dalí, and abstract pieces by Louise Nevelson and Arnaldo Pomodoro. Some artists, like Alexander Calder, were prolific jewelry artisans, while other artists, such as Frank Stella, produced one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.

In each iteration of the exhibition, Diane Venet has invited a select few artists to make new works to join the collection and the exhibition. For the Norton Museum of Art, artist and composer Sheila Concari has produced a sound piece that will accompany visitors throughout the exhibition. Known as a performer and auditory artist, Concari’s compositions investigate interactions between the human voice and new technologies. The piece that Concari has produced for Artists’ Jewelry utilizes spoken word techniques and unique sound treatments to engage visitors and complement the show’s captivating visual displays.

Man Ray’s Optic Topic, 1974, a standout in the exhibition, was purchased by Venet as a gift for her husband, with the object modeled after a driving mask. An 18-centimeter-wide gold mask, the piece mimics the contour of the face with insect-like indentations over each eye. A chunky gold ring designed by Yoko Ono resembling a vinyl record with “Imagine Peace” engraved on it as a nod to her late husband, John Lennon, and a gold and colorful enamel geometric necklace by Meret Oppenheim, one of nine produced, titled Tête de poète, highlight the breadth of Venet’s collection. Modern and contemporary, surrealist and avant-garde, minimalist and kinetic, commercially produced and one-of-a-kind: Venet’s collection has them all.

“The story of this collection is largely that of my friendships in the art world over the past forty years,” Venet said. “In my rather itinerant life, this collection of jewelry is thus an intimate museum that I can take everywhere with me and the treasure trove which I can find on my return home. I am so honored that the Norton Museum has invited me to share these special pieces with a larger public.”

The exhibition was curated by Guest Curator Diane Venet, with J. Rachel Gustafson, Chief Curatorial Operations & Research Officer, and Sarah Bass, Curatorial Research Associate, Norton Museum of Art.

ABOUT DIANE VENET

Born in Paris, Diane Venet was steeped in the art world from an early age. Her family were avid collectors, and her father, Jacques Segard, was for several years the President of the Friends of the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.

From 1967 to 1976, she worked as a radio and television journalist and co-hosted the successful weekly culture program on France 2, Samedi Soir. She then married a French diplomat and lived in Japan and Morocco. She had two daughters, both working in jewelry today (Esther, who founded Galerie miniMasterpiece, and Bérénice, Press and PR Manager in Paris). Venet established herself in New York in the 1980s with her husband, sculptor Bernar Venet, where she assisted him in organizing exhibitions around the world.

A passionate collector of art, as well as jewelry pieces by artists, Venet was also able to solicit the loan – and in some cases, the creation – of pieces from some of the twentieth century’s most prominent sculptors, curating the highly-acclaimed Bijoux Sculptures at Roubaix’s Musée La Piscine, in the north of France. The exhibition opened in the spring of 2008, included 170 pieces by 75 artists, assembled from 35 private collections, and was accompanied by a book, released by Gallimard, for which Venet and several art critics wrote introductions. The show welcomed more than 30,000 visitors and received unequivocally positive reviews in major publications both in France and across Europe.

The success in Roubaix led to expanded iterations of the exhibition – thereafter entitled From Picasso to Koons: Artist as Jeweller. A show at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York in 2011, was followed closely by the Benaki Museum in Athens, Valencia’s IVAM, Miami’s Bass Museum, the Hangaram Design Museum at the Seoul Art Center, the Palazzo Nani Mocenigo in Venice, the National Museum of Riga in Latvia, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD) in 2018 in Paris, Luxembourg’s Cercle Cité, the Grimaldi Forum in Moncao, and most recently at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels.

ABOUT THE NORTON MUSEUM OF ART 

The Norton Museum of Art, Florida’s largest art museum, is home to a distinguished collection of art, with holdings in American, European, Contemporary and Chinese Art and Photography.

Founded in 1941 by Ralph Hubbard Norton and his wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton, the Museum collects, preserves, and exhibits art, and engages visitors through exhibitions, events and live entertainment featuring local musicians and performance artists. Public programming is year-round and designed to inspire conversations and build community through the power of art. The Museum is accessible to all.