Sam Kramer: Jeweler on the Edge

Toni Greenbaum wittingly traces the life and work of Sam Kramer, one of the most eccentric American jewellery artists of the modern age. Presented in English.

Kramer’s strongly expressive, organic work and surreal workshops in New York’s Greenwich Village paved the way for key mid-twentieth-century metalsmiths - and for many more working today. From the unique handling of his favoured material, silver, to curiosities such as the attempt to make jewellery from his wife’s gallstones, or the purchase of 16,000 glass eyes from a taxidermist. The expressive genius of the artist can be found both in his brooches and necklaces and in his avant-garde publicity stunts. A figure of contemporary history, Sam Kramer reflects the existential angst and the quirky humour of the Beat Generation and continues to embody the iconoclastic spirit of his time.