The Schoonhoven Silver Award 2009
September 25 - November 15, 2009

In the early autumn of this year, as in 2008, Die Neue Sammlung will again be dedicating an exhibition itself to the lunar material of silver. »Poetry in Silver« is the motto of the 4th Schoonhoven Silver Award, which has been won by the Japanese artist Hiroshi Suzuki. Thanks to its particularly strict selection criteria, this much lauded competition, which was launched in 2002, has become the forum for leading silversmiths from all over the world. Among the stars represented in 2009 are the Belgian David Huycke, the Dutchman Jan Matthesius, the Germans Ulla and Martin Kaufmann and the Japanese Hiroshi Suzuki and Junko Mori as well as promising up-and-coming artists such as Ja-kyung Shin from Korea. As a particular challenge the awarding body, the Dutch Silver Art Foundation, chooses a different motto every year. After »Water«, »Light« and »A Showpiece« the chosen subject for 2009 is »Poetry«. Of the 135 applicants the jury invited 51 to take part in the competition. 47 artists submitted objects covering a broad spectrum ranging from free to applied art. The selected pieces on display at Die Neue Sammlung illustrate the many different aspects of the art of the silversmith. They are presented in a special exhibition space on the second floor of the Pinakothek der Moderne directly under the central cupola, thus allowing the light flooding into this room to highlight the distinctive features of the precious metal silver und enabling visitors to capture the particular atmosphere created by the interplay of reflexes and shadows, shimmering surfaces and three-dimensional bodies of work. The exhibition takes the observer on a journey of discovery to contrasting worlds: surreal, bizarre, fantastic, biomorphic, tactile – geometric, constructive, crystalline, rational, functional, tectonic … »useful things« interacting with free, sculptural expression.

An exhibition of Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich – in collaboration with the Silver Art Foundation, Schoonhoven, Netherlands
Catalogue in English, Dutch and German: Schoonhoven Silver Award 2009. Poetry in Silver – Poezie in Zilver – Poesie in Silber. Photography Rob Glastra. Editor/Publisher: Stichting ZilverKunst. Schoonhoven 2009.