All this is because, although Jarosław Westermark's jewellery is easy to recognise, it is difficult to pigeonhole: there is the aforementioned highest precision of workmanship, innovative ideas and inspirations from conceptual art, but also artistic wit, which is sometimes perversely combined with top-class jewellery. There are perfect proportions, a penchant for geometric forms, economical use of means of expression, lightness and finesse, play with material and form. His works escape the definition of jewellery, becoming small sculptural forms which, like any work of art, deserve contemplation - in all senses of the word. All this makes the term master goldsmith too little in the case of this artist, while the use of the highest degree - grandmaster - is far justified and often used.
The variety and diversity of the jewellery he creates is most likely due to the need to follow his own path - the artist has chosen one that no one has yet followed. Hence the independent pursuit of many technological solutions, hence the ability to see hidden beauty and expose it. As in the case of amber, which he has always wanted to show differently from what has been done before: „Not to stand out at all costs, but to look at it from a different angle, to find a different aspect of making jewellery with amber.” - he explained. He was one of the first to combine amber with diamonds, he was the first to use amber as a design element rather than a traditional „eyelet”, he was not afraid to use the natural forms of amber and create exclusive settings for them, emphasising the almost unlimited ornamental qualities of this stone. For 40 years, he followed his own artistic path, surprising people with unusual solutions - and this is still the case today.
Exhibition „Materialisations”
Art Gallery
Legnica SILVER Festival 1 May - 9 June 2019
opening of the exhibition in the presence of the artist: 18 May, 7 pm
The exhibition features works from the artist's private collection, from the collections of the Legnica Copper Museum and the International Collection of Contemporary Goldsmithing Art, the Legnica Art Gallery, as well as deposits from the Nadwiślańskie Museum in Kazimierz Dolny, the Amber Museum in Gdańsk and the Malbork Castle Museum.
