DOROTHEA PRÜHL

Overview

As used in German, the French word “collier” denotes a particularly valuable form of neck jewellery – it represents a promise and -betokens dignity to the woman wearing it. This is the sense in which Dorothea Prühl lays claim to the term for her jewellery.

Spaciously gestural, Dorothea Prühl takes full advantage of the powers of persuasion inherent in what is only seemingly a simple form. Her feeling for form, schooled as it is on the Classic moderns, is based on a sculptural idea and takes proportion and scale into account. Concentration on essentials, empathy in the extreme and vigorous plasticity are the distinguishing features of her works. They are the critically reflected expression of an entirely subjective artistic agenda. More or less recognisable, the object visualised contains no subliminal messages: hence it permits no interpretations containing extrinsic references. These are works that are exactly what they purport to be. They are not ambivalent. There is no narration, none at all.

Born in Breslau in 1937, Dorothea Prühl lives and works in Halle on the Saale. In her capacity as a professor at the state art academy at Burg Giebichenstein, she has shaped the jewellery-making curriculum at that school. Dorothea Prühl is a major player on the current jewellery scene.

LINK

“In Conversation with Dorothea Prühl”
// Art Jewelry Forum