The Modernist jewelry movement began in the 1930s and gained momentum in the decades following World War II. One of its most influential proponents was Anton Frühauf, a third-generation jeweler with a studio in Meran, Italy. Trained according to a classic apprenticeship model, he enhanced his education and broadened his outlook by attending the Academy of Applied Art in Munich. Afterward he moved to Rome and worked for several years as a goldsmith, before returning to his hometown in 1946. Like his American avant-garde contemporaries, Frühauf designed and fabricated jewelry. His sculptural goldwork is typically abstract, its lively surfaces highlighted by gemstones. The artist’s early work often features raised, textured surfaces and stylized patterning, reflecting his interest in petroglyphs, cave paintings, ancient script, and Greek mythology. By the time Frühauf created this bracelet in the late 1950s, his work had become more abstract and three-dimensional, and it incorporated gemstone highlights. While he cast some of his adornments, he assembled many others that resemble large-scale metal wall hangings made out of gold sheet. Other works show a distinct architectural aspect reminiscent of 1960s building façades.

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