2009, SAN FRANCISCO
CARTIER AND AMERICA Legion of Honor – Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco December 19, 2009 – April 18, 2010
100 years after Pierre Cartier opened a boutique on Fifth Avenue in 1909, the CARTIER AND AMERICA exhibition is celebrating the long history of friendship that ties the jeweler to America.
This exhibition brings together pieces that belonged to the most prestigious figures of American meritocracy, including pioneers of the New World, financiers, explorers, politicians, great artists and Hollywood or Broadway stars, as well as to a range of highly creative and energetic American patrons. This selection of jewelry, accessories and timepieces, issued largely from the Cartier Collection but also on loan from individuals and major cultural institutions, is enriched by workshop drawings and plaster mouldings from the Cartier archives.
The CARTIER AND AMERICA exhibition is the latest installment in a long series of events that have solidified ties between the two continents in the past: in 1997, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York paid homage to one hundred and fifty years of Cartier history, celebrating the founding of the jewelers in 1847, while the Place de Cartier was inaugurated by the City of New York in 2001.
This large retrospective is also the culmination of several celebrations held in honor of the centenary and which have punctuated the year 2009.
What other precious location could be better suited to these festivities than the Museum of the Legion of Honor, a replica of a Parisian mansion along the banks of the Seine? Upon entering, visitors are greeted by Rodin’s The Thinker and the motto "Honneur et Patrie" (Honor and Your Country) engraved on the frontispiece of the building. They are then invited to reflect on the long history of artistic and cultural exchange between France and America, which the CARTIER AND AMERICA exhibition perpetuates for generations to come.
Following its success, the Cartier and America exhibition at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, which has already welcomed almost 115,000 visitors, is being extended by three weeks. Now drawing to a close on May 9, 2010, it is the final chance to celebrate 100 years of Cartier in America.
