Karl Fritsch: Ruby Gold

Karl Fritsch (b. 1963), master of extravagant rings, returns with a publication that lures us deep into his world. Ruby Gold is a 'no-frills' pared-back book, without pagination, without essays. Instead it comprises eighty-one rings from the past twenty years featuring embedded gemstones and such memorable slogans as 'Fuck Off' and 'Nudelsuppe (Noodle Soup).

The jewellery artist's unmatched mastery of material and expression is apparent in every single ring, and every piece possesses tremendous energy as a result of the delicate yet archaic handling of the precious metals: Karl Fritsch carves in silver, shapes in gold, sets rubies and zirconias as a child would decorate a cake with self-confidence and with no regard for waste.

In between the detailed illustrations, Fritsch brings the rings and fingers into ironic dialogues with each other: 'Ring: I am art. / Finger: Oh come on...' And: 'Ring: I am a ring. / Finger: You are unwearable.'

About the Author

Karl Fritsch (*1963, Sonthofen, Germany) began his education at the Goldsmiths School in Pforzheim and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (1987-1994) in Munich. Fritsch has taught in art schools across the world and exhibited internationally, and his work has been acquired for public collections including at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.

In 2006 he received the highly prestigious international Francoise van den Bosch Award. In focusing on the ring, Fritsch explores taste, aesthetics and desire as he manipulates perceived ideas of preciousness and convention. The highly covetable rings have seen him win numerous awards and become a cult figure in contemporary jewellery. Together with his wife, Lisa Walker, and their family, Karl Fritsch lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.