Jewelry by Architects

The elegant rings, necklaces and other jewelry shown here are pieces designed for collector Cleto Munari by 16 internationally known architects. The jewelry enterprise began in 1982, when Munari asked architect Michele De Lucchi to design a ring for his wife; the collector went on to commission more designs and hire goldsmiths to fashion the pieces by hand. To a brief series of somewhat pompous questions posed by the author, the architects express thoughts about their designs; nearly all see their jewelry as an extension of their architecture. As a result, most of the works seem to have little to do with the human body. Some actually imitate buildings, like the tiny jewelled houses on the gold rings of Paolo Portoghesi, while others are complicated sculptures of metal and stones that make statements about space. But there are exceptions: Michael Graves, whose rings draw on the Etruscan and Roman jewelry he admires, and Oscar Tusquets, whose gold bracelets cling to the wrist with hands that have red-polished fingernails. (October 2)