Modernist Jewellery (1960s):
The modernists style began in the 1960s by rejecting styles that were popular in the past. The Victorians were seen as too decorative, the Art Nouveau style was deemed too fussy and Art Deco was considered too rigid. The modernists felt their style was more in common with artists, painters and sculptors with a goal to create a one-of-a-kind artwork that people could wear.
In the United States, silver was being used along with copper and found objects. Semi-precious stones were used in surreal, geometric or biomorphic forms with influence drawn from African motifs and the cubist art movement. In Scandinavia, silversmiths took an interest in natural and primal forms with designers such as Georg Jensen hiring notable artists for the period such as Henning Koppel and Nanna Ditzel who paralleled the style of the modernist Americans.