Jan Yager

Time and Place

In 1990 Yager gave herself a sabbatical. She took time off to study and rethink her approach, asking herself the question, "What makes art authentic?" She spent the next two years studying the history, philosophy, and practices of jewelry making, thinking about the ways in which an artwork is connected to the history of art, as well as the time and place in which it is made.

City Flotsam

Eventually this ten year exploration grew into the body of work entitled "City Flora/City Flotsam." The materials used for her "City Flotsam" series seem light and ephemeral, though culturally loaded. Brightly colored crack vials and caps suggest the pieces of a child's necklace, but also the trade beads used by seventeenth-century traders and slavers. Yager combines these materials into intricately arranged patterns that pay tribute to Native Americans and enslaved Africans.

Underlying each piece is "all the richness that went into its making", the workbench and tools that were used in the process of its formation, the cultural residue of crack vials and other objects that provided inspiration and materials for the work, and its historical and cultural context.

Balancing "the historical continuity of factors such as scale and form on the one hand and the historical discontinuity between materials, techniques and style on the other", Yager creates "thoroughly modern" counterparts of traditional jewelry forms. are considered exemplars of found-material jewelry. American Ruff is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection. Pieces such as Dandelion leaf with tire tread texture (1997) have been described as both poignant and serene. The following year, it was included in the major "Tiaras" exhibition at the V&A, among 200 pieces ranging from the 18th century to the present, from punk rock to royalty.

Yager's Tiara of Useful Knowledge (2006) echoes the purpose of the American Philosophical Society, defined in its charter of 1743 as "Promoting Useful Knowledge".

The history of artists and objects

Yager regarded jewelry as an art form, and attributed its lack of inclusion in art history and art publications, among other reasons, to "plain old sexism".

"The lack of status that we in the jewelry field must contend with is, I believe, deeply entwined with the lack of status of women in our culture. As a result, 'female things,' things like jewelry, and in a broader sense things like art, are diminished in their value... it is my belief we must confront and address these issues in order to understand and go beyond them." and served on the advisory board of the Association for the Study of Jewelry and Related Arts (ASJRA). She has written numerous articles for art metal publications, on topics including the work of metalsmith Phillip Fike, the importance of sabbaticals for studio jewelers,

She has been involved in documenting jewelry designers such as Betty Cooke, John Paul Miller and Earl Krentzin by gathering oral histories as part of the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

In 2007, Yager was featured in the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated PBS documentary series "Craft in America: Memory, Landscape, Community", created by executive co-producer Carol Sauvion. The multi-year series was accompanied by the publication of an illustrated book. "Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects", and a national eight-city touring exhibition, "Craft in America: Expanding Traditions".

Exhibitions Exhibitions involving Yager's work include: 2019: The William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 2009–2010: "Wrought and Crafted: Jewelry and Metalwork 1900–Present", Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2007: Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 2006: Celebrating American Craft: 30 Years of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 2003: "Jewels & Gems," Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC 2002: "Tiaras", Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom 1990: Contemporary Philadelphia Artists: A Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA 1989: "Craft Today USA", Group show, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris France 1984: "Jan Yager", Swan Galleries, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2003: Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage 2003: & 1986 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships established by Susan Unterberg, for women artists who are over 40 years of age 2000: The Peter S. Reed Foundation grant, New York City, New York State, USA 2000: Window of Opportunity Grant, The Leeway Foundation, Philadelphia, PA 1990: William Penn Foundation Award in 'Contemporary Philadelphia Artists', Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA 1984: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, United States Federal Government 1985: Michael Bondanza Prize for Excellence in Jewelry Design 1982: Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Grant-in-Aid: for Crafts, 1982: Elected: Distinguished Member, Society of North American Goldsmiths, 1982: Classic Jewelry, Merit Award, World Gold Council, New York, NY.