Antonio Pineda (1919-2009) Taxco Modernist Sterling Onyx cufflinks

Antonio Pineda (1919-2009) Taxco Modernist Sterling Onyx cufflinks 18mm square, 19.9 grams.

Antonio Pineda (1919-2009)
In the mountain town of Taxco in Mexico’s state of Guerrero, large-scale mining can be dated to the
sixteenth century, and silver is a way of life. In the years following the Mexican Revolution (1910–
20), jewelry and other silver objects were crafted there with an entirely innovative approach, informed
by modernism and the creation of a new Mexican national identity. Today, at the age of 89, Antonio
Pineda is one of two living members of the Taxco School and is recognized as a world-class designer
and a Mexican national treasure. Nearly two hundred examples of Pineda’s acclaimed silver work will
be displayed in Silver Seduction: The Art of Mexican Modernist Antonio Pineda, a traveling
exhibition debuting at the Fowler Museum Aug. 24, 2008.
Significantly, given Pineda’s many accomplishments and international renown, he identifies himself
primarily as a taxqueño, or Taxco, silversmith. From its inception, the Taxco movement broke new
ground in technical achievement and design. While American-born, Taxco-based designer William
Spratling has been credited with spearheading the contemporary Taxco silver movement, it was a
group of talented Mexican designers who went on to establish independent workshops and develop the
distinctive “Taxco School.” These designers incorporated numerous aesthetic orientations—Pre-Columbian art; silverwork, religious images, and other artwork from the Mexican Colonial period; and
local popular arts—merging them within the broad spectrum of modernism.
Pineda himself is lauded for his bold designs and ingenious use of gemstones. Silver Seduction traces
the evolution of his work from the 1930s–70s, and includes more than fifty each of necklaces and
bracelets, as well as numerous beautiful rings, earrings and diverse examples of his hollowware and
tableware. All of the works feature Pineda’s hard-to-achieve combination of highly refined execution
and hand-wrought appeal.
Pineda’s jewelry is especially known for its elegant acknowledgment of the human form. It is often
said that a Pineda fits the body perfectly, that it feels right when it is worn. So, for example, a thick
geometric necklace that might at first glance seem too weighty or rigid to wear comfortably is, in fact,
faceted, hinged, or hollowed in such a way that it gracefully encircles the neck or drapes seductively
down the décolletage.
In addition, no other taxqueño jeweler used as many costly semiprecious stones or set them with as
much ingenuity, skill, and variety as did Pineda. Only the most talented of silversmiths could master