Manfred Bischoff

He is one of the most important and innovative jewellery artists of our time and one of the few who dare to tell stories with their jewellery. Manfred Bischoff (1947 – 2015) searched for a long time for the right materials to express his thoughts and feelings. By the end-eighties at the latest, when he was living in Italy, he had found his unmistakable design language: His materials – gold and coral as well as his very special way of presenting the pieces.

Many works include a drawing on which words play an important role in a peculiar script and on which rings, brooches or earrings can find their place, but do not have to. As in the case of “AGITATOR”, a brooch consisting of two thin arms and a large mouth that is wide open, so that one literally believes to hear loud slogans coming out of it. The drawing gives the viewer several starting points from which to approach the work. “It can help or confuse.” Both are good, says Bischoff. But in any case, these sketches, made with a few dynamic strokes, emphasise the lively radiance of the jewellery pieces and at the same time give them a protective frame in Bischoff’s cosmos of references to literature, art history and existential questions of life.

Bischoff was open-minded, he took up trends from pop culture and art and experimented with simple materials, with photography, wire, Duropor and plastic. His years of study with Reinhard Reiling in Pforzheim and Hermann Jünger in Munich and especially his time in Berlin were formative. The ear jewel ‘LUXURY NO’ is anti-capitalist attitude and a bit of rebellious punk. Bischoff also found inspiration in contemporary art. Some brooches made of nickel silver, plastic and other materials are reminiscent of Frank Stella’s assemblages with their collage-like overlays and silhouettes extending into space. “While I was working with these poor materials, I realised that the only material to express my thoughts was gold. Because my ideas were very deep and superficial at the same time.”

Even if you don’t grasp Manfred Bischoff’s narrative works at first glance (you’re not supposed to), they touch you immediately – through beauty, great craftsmanship, warmth, lightness and wit. For us, Bischoff’s works are like little poems, symbolic, emotional and, in the end, enigmatic and perfect precisely for that reason.