2018 Catalogue Archive

Dutch artist Philip Sajet’s work is often concerned with structure. Here he explores the essence of an emerald cut diamond ring, transforming it into a series of gold lines whose points of intersection are emphasized by irregular faceted rubies. By reducing this ring to a composition of geometric forms, the artist reveals his pleasure in the aesthetics of what lies underneath. Emerald Ring was made for a 2017 exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, in which Sajet was paired with the architect Sergio Musmeci, to exploit the similarities between these jewels that celebrate the void and the reduction to the negative, and Musmeci’s research into the spatial possibilities of mesh structures. Philip Sajet was born in the Netherlands in 1953. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and then completed an internship with master goldsmith Francesco Pavan in Padua, Italy. He has exhibited internationally, and his work is held in collections including the Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas, and the V&A Museum in London.