Robert De Niro: Remembering his Father the Artist

American actor Robert De Niro talking about his artist father: "You never know. His art could last longer than my films." Portrait by Hedi Slimane. Click on photographs for slide show.

Robert De Niro has produced a documentary about his artist father's life and work during the celebrated 1940s and 50s New York School. The American actor visited Rome for its European premiere and to talk about his relationship with Robert De Niro Senior and his oeuvre, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento

ROBERT De Niro’s rugged face crinkles into a smile when he is talking about his father’s paintings but tears well up when he speaks of him as a man. The actor is quiet and thoughtful in person, even delicate, without a hint of the robust and menacing characters he has famously played on screen. He talks knowledgeably about the post-war art scene in New York and how his father's figurative expressionist work, inspired by European Modernism, at first flourished but was then eclipsed by Abstract Expressionism and later Pop Art in the 1960s.

Woman in Red 1961

The actor says for years he wanted to make a film to record his father's work and life and use the Super 8 footage from the 1970s recording De Niro Sr's art world: “I wanted to put it to use in a documentary. I wanted to interview his contemporaries while people are still around." Launched at the the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr, was directed by Perri Peltz and Geeta Gandbhir and produced with HBO Documentary Films.Looking at the faces of the two men together it is striking that De Niro looks direct and determined while his father’s expression is softer, more undecided and uncertain about life. And Robert De Niro Sr did struggle with his personal identity and success as an artist.

Robert De Niro Sr & son in New York:

"We had a strong connection."

De Niro says he didn't have a traditional elationship with his father: "We were not the type of father and son who played baseball together, as you can surmise. But we had a strong connection."

Robert De Niro’s on screen characters from Vito Corleone in The Godfather:Part II and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver to Jake La Motta in Raging Bull and Pat Solatano in Silver Linings Playbook — have earned the actor two Oscars and his reputation as one of the best actors in the world. Yet after making 100 films over five decades, this documentary offers more insight into what moves De Niro himself.

Today, he still keep his father’s studio exactly as he left it in New York’s Soho when he passed away in 1993 at the age of 71 years old. The studio is located in a nondescript building, up six flights of stairs and contains two big spaces. One is covered in shelves containing art books and writers such as Appollinaire, Ibsen, Valery, Proust and O’Neill. The other room has painting easels, tubes of paint and palettes and the walls are covered in his drawings and paintings.

Robert De Niro Sr painting

at his beloved Soho studio in New York

"I like things that don’t change. I like consistency," De Niro says, explaining the decision to leave the valuable real estate in SoHo as it was. “My mother lived here, and then she moved to another studio and gave this to my father. He was here at least 15 years. I changed a couple of things, but it’s about 90 percent the way it was. I preserved it mainly for my kids, especially my younger kids, because I wanted them to be able to see what their grandfather did and how he worked.”

Robert De Niro Sr was born in 1922 in Syracuse, New York to an Italian American father, Henry Martin De Niro whose parents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, and an Irish American mother, Helen O'Reilly.

Already showing artistic ability as a child, De Niro Sr began attending art classes at the Syracuse Museum from age eleven to fifteen. In the summer of 1938, he studied with the artist Ralph Pearson in Gloucester Massachusetts. Later he was a student of two of the 20th century’s leading abstract painters, Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann. 



Henri Matisse was a life-long 

inspiration for the artist

In 1939, he won a scholarship to Black Mountain College in North Carolina. A decade later he studied with Hans Hofmann’s Eighth Street school in New York. De Niro met his wife there, fellow painter Virginia Admiral, and they were part of  an artistic circle in Greenwich Village that included Anaís Nin, Henry Miller, Robert Duncan and Tennessee Williams.

In 1943, when his father was 21 years old, Robert Jr was born but his young parents continued to study and paint and summer in Provincetown. Virginia and Robert only stayed togther until he was three years old but the actor says they were always on friendly terms.

De Niro's exceptional training helped to launch his career, highlights included his solo debut in Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century Gallery in 1946, regular shows alongside de Kooning, Rothko and Kline at the Charles Egan Gallery in the 50s  and later at Virginia Zabriskie's gallery. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968 and he held exhibitions of his work throughout his life. Unlike many of his better-known peers, De Niro never totally abandoned the high-art tradition: nudes, still lifes, and idyllic landscapes were his preferred subjects.

Three Women 1968

He mixed abstraction and representation, bridging the gap between European modernism and Abstract Expressionism, inspired by painters from Delacroix to Matisse. With his wide knowledge of art history, he sought to maintain the tradition of representational painting, eschewing the tide of abstraction that was championed by many of his contemporaries. He followed his own vision of painterliness and experimentation.

By this time, De Niro had arrived at his distinctive mode of painting, which he continued to explore and develop for the next forty years. His works from these decades are expressionistic and show his signature post-Fauve palette with freely brushed areas of colour defined by strong outlines.

Critic and editor-in-chief of Artnews, Thomas Hess wrote in February 1951: “De Niro succeeds in keeping every inch of the canvas alive...The result is a feeling of luxury, poise and affable richness, combined with a sort of nervous impetuosity." 

Still life with Vase, Lemons and Guitar  1989

Robert De Niro Jr. regrets not being more interested in art when he was younger, but he was attracted to acting from an early age. “My parents were supportive,” he says, “but they didn’t push me in any way. Nonetheless, they would have preferred my being an actor as opposed to, say, an insurance salesman.”

Artist Paul Resika, a longtime friend of De Niro Sr, recalls the late painter as truly standing out in a “rarified world” of Hofmann students aiming to upend the art establishment. De Niro was a “superior painter,” says Resika, “In New York in the ’50s he was the equal to Kline, Rothko, and De Kooning.” But Resika says De Niro was also “very poor. He taught art, as many of us did, to pay the rent. His wife helped him; she’d gone into real estate and bought property in SoHo.”

The documentary film, directed by Perri Peltz and Geeta Gandbhir, offers a moving account of the 22-year-old De Niro going to Paris in 1965 after his father had moved there to help him sell his work, since De Niro Sr. was struggling to make ends meet. “I felt responsible. I was his son; his only child,” says De Niro Jr today. “I saw he was in a rut over there; it wasn’t going well and he was unhappy, so I made him come back.” 

 Once the actor had achieved fame by the mid-1970s, he was able to help his father financially. Yet, when asked if his father had a favourite of his many now classic films, De Niro can’t recall a conversation about his career: “He was proud of me, of course, but we never had any discussions about it. He was supportive. I’d always invite him to film openings with my grandmother, his mother, and I would go to openings of his shows.” During the documentary, De Niro reads from his father's diaries: "I feel I hardly have the courage at this moment to wash my brushes, which have been standing in turpentine....The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next.” 

 

As a successful actor Robert De Niro Jr
 could help his father

The film's director, Perri Peltz says the documentary not only reflects the artist's career, but also tackles the most intimate aspects of De Niro Sr's life through his personal letters and diaries, unpublished family pictures and interviews with the artist, his friends and art experts. Peltz pointed out that the film seeks to shed light on both his artistic and human qualities. 
De Niro says that the movie tackles his father's unspoken homosexuality, which was the cause of internal conflict while he was alive. The actor added that he couldn't discern his father's sexual orientation, but realised the truth later thanks to some subtle references his mother used to make. This subject was always considered a taboo, and was never discussed between him and his father.

In 2011, De Niro Jr established an award of $25,000 USD to be given annually to artists under the auspices of the Tribeca Film Institute. The Robert De Niro Sr Prize focuses on mid-career American artists pursuing excellence and innovation in painting and draws attention to artists whose work has been under-recognised by the art world. Catherine Murphy won this year while Stanley Whitney was awarded in 2012 and Joyce Pensato last year.

The actor says he felt his father never received the attention he was due during his life and the documentary was a way to preserve his legacy. "My father was successful in his life, as he did what he pleased and liked; he gained international recognition, but not the level he deserved. You never know. His art could last longer than my films." 

The actor at a recent exhibition
of his father's paintings this year

Robert De Niro Sr., Paintings and Drawings (1948–1989) was exhibited at DC Moore Gallery this July and prices at the show ranged from $14,000 USD for charcoal drawings to $250,000 USD for the largest paintings.

Today, Robert De Niro Sr is represented in many museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2009, a retrospective of his work was presented at the Musée Matisse in Nice, France. 

Watch the trailer for the documentary here:

“My parents were supportive but they didn’t push me in any way. Nonetheless, they would have preferred my being an actor as opposed to, say, an insurance salesman," says De Niro Jr today.







Still Life with Vase of Flowers, Lemons, Chair and Guitar 1989 Oil on linen, 34 x 40 inches

Detail of  Still Life with Greek Head, 1951 Oil on canvas.

Woman in Red, 1961 Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Estate of Robert De Niro Sr

Three Women 1968 Oil on canvas 72 x 78 inches.Courtesy of the estate of Robert De Niro Sr

Reclining Figure Reading a Book 1970 Charcoal on paper, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 inches 

Moroccan Women, 1984. Oil on canvas.  Courtesy of the Estate of Robert De Niro Sr

Autumn Landscape with House 1968 Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches

Detail of Studio Interior, 1969. Oil on canvas

Detail of  Last Painting 1992. Oil on linen.

Flowers in a Blue Vase 1966 Oil on canvas

Still Life with Two Vases and Pitcher, No Date. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inch caption

Robert De Niro Sr mixed abstraction and representation, bridging the gap between European modernism and Abstract Expressionism, inspired by painters from Delacroix to Matisse. 

Early etching by Robert De Niro Sr



Fashion Report From the Catwalks: Sping Summer 2016 Trends

Bold colours and prints with a seventies vibe dominated the catwalks, as at Christopher Kane's SS16 show in London above. Photo by Shaun James Cox, British Fashion Council

As the Spring/Summer 2016 fashion season comes to a close, we take a look back at the highlights and trends from the catwalks with a special focus on London Fashion Week, renowned for being more experimental and free spirited than New York, Milan and Paris, our Fashion Editor Limor Helfgott makes a special report 

1970s at Preen. Photo: Kensington Leverne

This year, the new location for London Fashion Week in Soho had a slightly grungier feeling to it and the collections by local designers seemed to connect to the city’s fashion scene with cool, colourful and energetic designs. Bold colours and prints were key elements and the 1970’s fever was at an all-time high. A feminine mood was very noticeable this season and replaced the androgynous trend that dominated the collections last season.
Frills, thrills and feminine silhouettes

Frills, futurism & vibrant colour at Fyodor Golan

Fyodor Golan's women were as usual, fragile but at the same time fearless and seductive. The duo presented a collection inspired by futurism and collaborated with Transformers to create looks that were full of frills, vibrant colours and floral designs. Completing the looks perfectly were stacked wooden platforms by Kat Maconie that together created a sporty Geisha in geometric prints and floral printed patent leathers with neon detailing.

Danielle Romeril's sleeves. Photo: Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Ruffles were seen almost everywhere and were styled in many different ways, while glitter was also part of the fun. A good example was on the Ashish runway which was filled with colourful glitter over the white flounces. Models were presented as skater princess fairies in sheer maxi dresses and tracksuits covered in sparkles and patches.


Double ruffles at David Koma. Photo: Kensington Levernel 

It was double ruffles at the David Koma collection, the master of flaunting the female form. In his SS16 collection, he presented layering, but not in the traditional sense, and tops and trousers were corseted or bound tightly at the waist to create the most feminine look.

Toga's mysteries: Alessandro Garofola

On the Toga catwalk models meandered through flowering trees. The theme of the collection “Petals, Minerals, Squiggles” was meant to evoke the mystery of nature. Large ruffles and frills were presented alongside pleated tulle and arty prints with feminine flowing skirts. The materials were collated and bonded like seaweed on the shore, and the embroidered and printed tulle was a reminiscent of the ethereal floating colours of jellyfish. Another element we couldn’t ignore was the attention sleeves received on the catwalks, from modern asymmetric arms as seen at Roksanda and Jonathan Saunders to Victorian motifs at Erdem, flowing sleeves at JW Anderson or long fluted designs at the Danielle Romeril presentation ~ certainly a key look on the catwalk this season.

Khaki at Christopher Raeburn. Photo: Sam Wilson

New season colours: yellow and green
Side by side with pastels, blue and nude, it looks like green and yellow dominated the catwalks this season and seemed to be the hottest shades. At Christopher Raeburn we could definitely spot a sea of green and olives in forms of multiple military-inspired ensembles, together with kimono wraps in yellow, blue and white. This collection didn’t join the feminine celebration on the London fashion week catwalks, and was more on the tomboy side. Bora Aksu’s collection was inspired by memories of the lush garden full of lemon, orange and pomegranate trees at his family’s country house. This very personal collection was an homage to colour and light, with feminine silhouettes and a sophisticated vintage feel to the designs. Along with the egg yellow we could see powder pink, burnt orange and fuchsia.

A sea of greens at Jasper Conran. Photo: Kensington Leverne

Jasper Conran definitely went green this season with so many shades of the colour, that no two shades were the same: leaf green, khaki green, avocado green, deep green and moss green were among the many shades in light viscose jerseys, blended chiffons and silks with the prints that became his signature and dominated the matching green runway with reflections mirroring the models.



 Sequins & embroidery at Temperley. Photo: Eeve Rinne

While most garments were simple and wearable there was a glamorous touch with sequins and embroidered pieces, that made the muted browns and greens glimmer and shine over the models. What will make its way to the high streets is always the hottest question, but it is safe to say the colours we saw this season on the runway and the feminine silhouettes that were seen everywhere, are looks that we are happy to embrace.

Jean-Pierre Braganza: London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016

Jazz music inspired Braganza’s improvisational approach to designing his new collection: “I never liked jazz when I was growing up,” he said backstage. “But now, the fact that it’s so structured and yet so chaotic really fascinates me.” 





This spring/summer 2016 season, the British Fashion Council has moved London Fashion Week from its traditional home at Somerset House to the more edgy and urban surroundings of Brewer Street in Soho. One of the stand-out shows at the new venue was Jean-Pierre Braganza's vivid and fluid collection, Jeanne-Marie Cilento reports

Brilliant, painterly colours for SS16

THE small streets radiating out from Soho's Brewer Street were crowded with people waiting impatiently to go into shows at the start of London Fashion Week. The guests for Jean Pierre Braganza's new collection showed their invitations to the burly but pleasant English security men and practically raced up the steep walkway into the packed exhibition space. Filled with a fashion crowd eager and leaning forward on the long white benches lining the catwalk, a huge bank of photographers jostled for positions at one end ~ getting ready for the show to start.

The music, loud and drumming, resounded in the white, brightly lit space designed by David Collins. Willowy pale models came out on to the catwalk in striking silhouettes, mixing black and white with brilliant dashes of colour on high-waisted trousers, trench-coats, and jumpsuits with prints inspired by the Bauhaus.

 Long, sinous evening dresses in deep blue

The collection called Whiplash, named after the Miles Teller film, included shapes that were both classic and retro with long bias cut dresses and sharp suits with clever contemporary construction on display. The most striking were the full length evening dresses – midnight blue, figure-hugging, show-stoppers that would capture the attention of a room. Braganza reveals and conceals enough for the imagination with deep plunge V neck dresses in silky satin. 

Breaking away from last season’s monochromes, Braganza did venture out with a more vibrant and artistic colour palette. Although born in London, Braganza was raised in Canada but returned to study and graduate from Central Saint Martins. His work with Roland Mouret before setting up his own label, inspires his beautifully cut long dresses. 

A Bauhaus aesthetic for the prints

This season Braganza mixed asymmetric shapes and forms with a cut-out shoulder or a half-train dress plus deconstructed frocks that were half blazer, half satin shift. His colours included sunflower yellow, Cobalt blue, poppy red and he used materials such as satin, feathers, sequins, organza, and silk for the floaty dresses that matched with a multi-coloured, strappy stiletto.

The white and black jackets and trousers that opened the show in cool monochrome tones gradually became more and more brilliantly hued creating a crescendo of pattern and colour by the end ~ but still within a disciplined palette of red, white and dark blues. When the designer came out to take his bow, he appeared with a closely shaven crew cut and a dark minimalist ensemble ~ much less exhuberant than his new collection.

Interview: American Jewellery Designer Andy Lifschutz in Rome

DAM Gallery presents:

New Renaissance man: Andy Lifschutz photographed at his atelier in Rome's centro storico where artisans have worked since the 16th Century. "I love ancient history, psychology, mysticism, spirituality, working with my hands....The canvas of the human form gives me the best response and critique of my craft. Cover photograph and portrait by Paul James McDonnell

American jeweller Andy Lifschutz has a studio in New York’s hip Bushwick neighbourhood but has recently opened a gallery and studio in the heart of Rome. An artist in metal and stone, the designer's richly-textured pieces are hand-crafted and full of whimsical metaphor and poetry. Jeanne-Marie Cilento talks to the tall, laconic Portland native at his 16th Century bottega in Via Arco Di Palma

LEANING over his worktable covered in tools under a high, arched ceiling and an ancient map of Lazio, the bearded Andy Lifschutz could be a Renaissance artisan himself ~ apart from the small expresso in a stylish glass at his side. The jeweller describes how the sense that artigiani have worked in this same space for centuries is both an inspiration and reminder of the long history of his craft. The light and airy gallery at the front of the studio opens through an arched glass door on to a cobbled street that leads on to Rome’s famous avenue of antiquaries and art galleries, Via Dei Coronari.

Glinting golden in the afternoon light, Lifschutz’s pieces have a rough-hewn, organic quality that suggests his inspiration from the animals and wild forests of his Oregon homeland. A long brass cuff and collar have a sinuous texture of imprinted leather and tempt you to run your fingers over their surface to feel their lustrous curves. Chunky rings bristle with glimmering pieces of brilliant quartz that seem like a crystalline explosion ~ giving the natural stones an unusual sense of dynamism and life. Mixing artisanal techniques with raw materials such as reclaimed metals, wood, bone and stone, his pieces exude a natural spirit and form.

Andy Lifschutz' professional career is as original and complex as his pieces of jewellery, encompassing acting, wine making and working in politics. But he found his creative métier after being inspired by a piece of hand-made jewellery in the shape of a rose in London. He then passionately pursued learning all of the techniques and craft of jewellery design and making.

He began metalworking in Brooklyn with designer Kristin Hanson and then gained more experience in Portland, Oregon with Gunnar Adamovics. But it was under the tutelage of William "Billy" Thomas King at the Sterling Quest School of Jewelry Design and Creation in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico that set Lifschutz on his professional path after graduating in 2008.

Today, the jewellery designer's work has been featured in New York fashion shows and in top magazines around the world. He creates not only special custom made pieces but has his own collections of rings, bracelets and earrings.

1. After having been an actor, wine maker and working in politics how did you begin your career as a jewellery designer? 

Craft is a part of my framework. My grandmother is an award winning quilter and my father is a carpenter. Growing up I was encouraged to explore my creative aspirations to the fullest. After travelling the world, exploring a career in acting, wine making, and (yes) a brief stint working in politics I was called to a create objects of adornment. This happened while I was living in London with my then girlfriend, who introduced me to the amazing hand crafted work of a Roman jewellery designer. I fell in love with the detail and emotion that was shared through this artist's work in silver and gold.

Once I began apprenticing in New York all of the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. I was able to explore the human relationship to objects; the emotion behind something that is cherished, the value of creating something that will be treasured, loved and passed down. This process I found rewarding, and I possessed the ability to sit still for hours on end crafting one single piece of work. So it stuck.

Passion turned to obsession and soon I was up to my eyebrows in metal courses, study and practise. I didn’t really do anything else for a few years. It pissed my friends off at times as I was very much engulfed in developing my craft. There were a lot of months where I would only sleep three to four hours a night in order to get the most out of each day. That thankfully has got better now!

2. Why did you choose jewellery design as your artistic métier?

I’d say it chose me. I love ancient history, psychology, mysticism, spirituality, working with my hands, the continual search for what it means to be living here and now in 2014. All artists get to express the sentiment of what it means for them to be alive today, and express that in their own medium. I enjoy being able to see my work enjoyed by friends, clients and the general public. The canvas of the human form gives me the best response and critique: it helps me to refine and redefine my craft.

3. Can you describe the experience, person or training that has had the greatest impact on your design career so far?

I have been very fortunate to study and train with some of the best jewellers and teachers in the world (in my humble opinion). Of course, there is one that stands out more than others, mostly due to his larger than life approach and technique, William ‘Billy’ Thomas King, who runs the Sterling Quest School in San Miguel De Allende.

I decided to go to Mexico based on word of mouth that I needed to study with this guy. His website was down at the time, and all I had to go on was an expletive-laced 20 minute phone conversation on Boxing day of 2006. Billy’s method teaches you the technical side of metalsmithing, while insisting that your creative spirit is in charge of translating your design into metal. This approach allowed me the freedom I needed to build my creative set.

4.  Where did you grow up and does this place inspire your creative work?

I grew up in the Great Northwest of the United States in and around Portland, Oregon. I continue to be inspired by Oregon, with its unscathed natural wonders of forests, mountains, beaches and good people.

5. Today, you split your time between studios in New York and Rome. What does each city give you?

Well Rome is connected to all empires both current and former, so there is a similarity in a sense. For me, Rome now is more laid back and the pace of life is much more agreeable. However, in our current world New York offers so much to an artist and growing brand. There is no other place in the world that has so many wonderful and successful ideas being activated all at once. That synergy is magnetic.

Sure, it’s a tough place to live, but once you get the hang of it there is a real magic to being a New Yorker. So I’m grateful to have both for now. I can get out of town to the hot springs in Tuscany one month and next month I’ll catch my favourite flea market in Chelsea on Saturday. For this balance I am extremely grateful.

6. Do you find your creative process when designing jewellery is more rational or instinctive? 

Instinctive. If it’s a custom piece I want to study the hand of my client when designing a ring for them. So not just that the size fits, but also the actual design responds well with the shape of their fingers. For my collections I try to be as present-minded as possible and create in relation to what is going on in our world and how I feel about those realities.

7. What do find the most challenging aspect of your work as a jeweller?

Time!!!! I love creating my work and there are so many directions that I have yet to explore.

8. What part of the jewellery designing and making process gives you the most happiness?

When the perfect piece finds the perfect home. That smile on someone’s face when something that I have created really speaks to him or her.

9. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday or is the process more fluid?

I have different parts of the year where I divide my time into separate camps. If I am finishing an order and getting ready to meet my deadlines then I am on a strict schedule. Whereas, if I am doing research for the next collection or working on a custom piece I ignore all clocks, timers, phones and immerse myself in the creative task at hand.

10. In our digital age, what does jewellery give us as an art form?

Trick question? Sadly, most of the jewellery that you see on the high or low streets today is at least partially designed by a computer program. I’m not completely anti CAD program, but I do feel that there is something very special about a truly hand crafted piece of jewelry. 

Given that you are choosing to put something on your living, breathing, conscious body, isn’t it nice to know that you are expressing yourself with a piece of jewellery that came from the process of someone else’s own creative spirit? I think that jewellery gives us a connection to a greater depth within ourselves. We are not reminded of how many apps we have, or what TV program we plan to watch by what jewellery we wear. Hopefully we are reminded of those we love, a special moment and the unique individuals that we all are. 

To view more of Andy Lifshutz's work visit: www.DAM-Gallery.com

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Andy Lifschutz working in his studio in Rome on his hand-creafted jewellery: "If you are choosing to put something on your living, breathing, conscious body, isn’t it nice to know that what you are expressing yourself with a piece of jewellery that came from someone else’s own creative spirit?" Photograph by Paul James McDonnell

The Caipora cuff from Lifschutz's Le Havre collection. Model Alisa Nadolishny. Photograph by Rudolf Bekker

Caipora Collar from the Le Havre collection that explores decay and reclamation. Lifschutz deconstructed a 1920's leather handbag and transformed the worn material into jewels of reclaimed bronze and sterling silver. Photograph by Jeremy Kirby

Andy Lifschutz working in Portland, Oregon at the short lived but successful Mercy Studios. He is pictured working on one of the pieces for his debut collection Love Letters.  Photograph by Basil Childers

Ice on Fire ring from the Nature Speaks collection hand-made by the jeweller in cobalt quartz and bronze. The quartz stones are from Arkansas in the USA and are set in their raw and uncut form. Photograph by Jeremy Kirby

The jeweller's chunky rings bristle with glimmering pieces of brilliant quartz that seem like a crystalline explosion ~ giving the natural stones an unusual sense of dynamism and life. Model: Alisa Nadolishny. Photograph by Rudolf Bekker  

Artemis Ring in Rose Silver with sterling silver prongs and set with rainbow quartz is an original piece part of Lifshutz's Nature Speaks collection. Each piece is custom made from by the artist using uncut quartz crystals and reclaimed metals. Photograph by Jeremy Kirby

From the Garbo Collection, the rings are made of yellow gold and set with sapphire's, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. The collection was inspired by the intriguing actress Greta Garbo.

The Smoke on Water ring from the Nature Speaks collection is hand carved by the artist. The quartz stones are from Arkansas in the USA, are set in their raw and uncut form. Photograph by Jeremy Kirby

An original neckpiece created by the jeweller for Delphine Diallo's pictorial Faith. The leather was salvaged from a 1920's leather handbag and reconstructed into this wearable art collar. Photograph by Delphine Diallo

Custom brass knuckles created for one of the jeweller's clients. The hand-engraved rings read: Mina Mama. Photograph byTyler Kohlhoff