Over the course of thirty years, working in virtual seclusion from the mainstream, Daniel Brush has created an unparalleled body of work. His career includes international painting exhibitions, a fifteen-year period of seclusion and study, and an intense immersion into the mysteries of gold. His large-scale canvases and drawings—inspired by the expressive, disciplined gestures of the Noh theatre—integrate the artist's profound understanding of Asian thought with the removed drama in modernist painting. Brush's three-dimensional works—products of solitary thought, study and experimentation—are included in many public, private and royal collections. These works include delicate granulated gold domes in the traditions of the ancient goldsmiths, jewel-encrusted objects of virtue and fantasy and gold and steel sculptures, some only a few inches high. Imbued with a timeless quality and mesmerizing in the intricacy and daring of the fabrication, Brush's objects bear comparison with the work of historical masters. His current wall pieces in blued steel and pure gold engage the ambient light. Brush’s table works in stainless steel and pure gold, hand-engraved with thousands of rhythmic lines, are visual poems that record the passage of time. Daniel Brush has developed a rigorous personal aesthetic marked by its intellectual force, mastery of techniques and the science of materials. His idiosyncratic, contemplative work marks a journey of evolving mastery, and bodies forth a deeply expressive voice in American art. ~DanielBrush.com
His latest masterpiece has landed him a featured article in the world's leading Diamond and Gem Magazine, Rapaport. The following are excerpts from the interview Brush gave to Rapaport regarding his newest style of art and craftsmanship:
Unlike some of Brush’s previous work, such as his sumptuously granulated objects, this recent work looks relatively simple. But a much closer look, under a high-power loupe, and a discussion with the artist reveal that the diamonds are not precisely and uniformly cut stones used in contemporary pavé work. Instead, these are Mughal-era diamonds, individually cut and unique in their proportions. Each and every one must be coaxed into place. “Steel is moving icebergs into position,” Brush muses about working with such an intransigent metal. When he set out on this “Mission Impossible,” he discovered that “steel” is not a singular metal but rather a nearly endless range of alloys.
STEEL EXPLAINED “There are over 5,000 kinds of steel,” Brush explains, “and different metals do different things.” For a metalsmith, two of the most important qualities are the metal’s malleability and its ductility. “I have to know what is in it, so I know how to work it,” he points out. In spite of the industrial equipment that occupies nearly half of his spacious New York City loft, the question had to be asked: “Did you buy any new tools to do this work?” “I bought an entire metal workshop,” Brush replies. “I got obsessed with steel because I thought it was indestructible.” That very quality makes it difficult to work and he is eager and delighted to explain the qualities of steel alloys, and especially the alloy he has chosen to work with. “I like stainless because it is so hard; it rejects oxidation….The material
has porosity.” has porosity.” Brush compares working with steel to “getting in a ring and doing battle.” His basic material arrives at the workshop as a billet of dull-looking metal, nine to ten feet long, which he says, “I cut by hand, saw by hand, set by hand.” His Mughal-era diamonds need to be sifted. “They’re sifted by me, repeatedly, to achieve as uniform of a diameter as possible,” he explains. It’s not easy to drill holes in the metal, to create a space for setting the diamonds. Each hole must be drilled individually, as he goes. To accomplish the work, Brush does the setting under a 40-power microscope. These extremely brilliant stones satisfy his goal to “draw with light. They’re refracting so much light.” Two collections of delicate diamond pieces are among the most lighthearted works in the retrospective show. Their titles, “Loose Threads” and “Geometric Light,” are remarkably descriptive. While the Geometric Light pieces are easily worn, as he demonstrates by quickly affixing one to his wife, Olivia’s, dress, “Loose Threads” is meant more as a wall hanging consisting of a group of individual pieces. They were inspired by the loose threads often found on his wife, a textile designer. In spite of the public attention to the work created by the retrospective at the museum, Brush is likely to remain one of those secrets like invisibly set gemstones, treasured by those in the know. Siegelson concludes, “In the small world of art critics, experts and collectors who truly understand great jewelry, Daniel Brush’s work is held in the highest regard and coveted. Despite the newfound popularity and attention to Brush’s work, the supply of his work will remain limited as Brush creates all of his work completely by his own hand. Pieces already in collectors’ hands rarely come to market.” “Daniel Brush: Blue Steel Gold Light” runs through February 17, 2013, at the
Museum of Arts and Design at Columbus Circle in New York City.
As an appreciator of the arts and a lady, I fell in love with his combination of diamond and steel in such a unique way; but as the woman of a blacksmith I thoroughly enjoyed his passion for this complex alloy, as well as his endurance to not only work with it; but make it his own.
