The beautiful, twisted world of surrealist jewellery

When Salvador Dalí presented his 1936 surrealist Lobster Telephone and Méret Oppenheim her fur-lined teacup and saucer, they were met with shock, and then, delight. Surrealism, literally, “beyond reality”, started as a movement in French literary circles and quickly spread to the arts, where it was defined by André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism.

Surrealism lent itself perfectly to jewellery. Salvador Dalí designed 39 pieces, including The Eye of Time, in collaboration with the jeweller Carlos Alemany; Alberto Giacometti and Oppenheim collaborated with the surrealist fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who is the focus of a coming exhibition at the V&A.

“Jewellery is an ideal conduit for surrealist ideas,” says Helen Molesworth, senior jewellery curator at the museum, “because it can be worked as a form of miniature art.”

Whether they describe themselves as surrealists or just share its tenets, many contemporary designers borrow from the ideas introduced by the movement. In a “nod to decay”, the London-based jeweller Emily Frances Barrett walks the Thames at low tide in search of discarded objects such as porcelain shards and cigarette butts, which she coats in resin. Master lapidarist Julia Obermaier “combines real and unreal elements” to recast everyday objects, such as the humble school rubber in rock crystal and polished agate. Meanwhile, the artist and alumna of the Sarabande foundation Akiko Shinzato explores the tension between beautiful jewellery and the demands of modern beauty standards with her jewelled body braces, Face Forward, Chin Up and Smile, which compel the wearer to sit up straight and to smile.

“It creates a space away from the uncertainty of the world; it’s an escape from reality,” says Barrett. As truth and absurdity continue to shift their shapes in the modern world, jewellers are again embracing surrealism as an expression of freedom.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art is at the V&A Museum from 28 March to 8 November