Joaquim Capdevila. Jewellery 1959-2019

The Museu del Disseny, Barcelona is organising a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Joaquim Capdevila, celebrating his 60-year career as a jeweller and goldsmith. Capdevila is one of the key figures of the Nova joia movement in Catalonia who renewed the idea of jewellery as a means of artistic expression.

Joaquim Capdevila (1944), well versed in the different jewellery trades, is a creator who expresses himself through the visual language of jewellery. His creations, unique items, go well beyond the traditional concept of jewellery, not only by dispensing with precious metals and applying new materials – plastic, hide, fabric, stones, wood, rubber, copper – but also by using gold and silver jointly with acrylic paint or Japanese lacquer to provide them with great chromatic uniqueness. Capdevila's pieces are unmistakeable for their visual quality, halfway between painting and sculpture. Art jewels, object jewels, experiment jewels, personalised jewels and unique jewels are labels that may apply to his work.

He has experimented with every type of material and their uniqueness lies to a great extent in the application of colour to his pieces through painting. However, Capdevila does not make painted jewels, but rather merges the two art forms in a single work. 

His jewels are just a visual expression of critical reflections and lived experiences, compositions with a free and personal format.

The exhibition coincides with Enjoia’t, curated by the AFAD.