PEARLS: A NATURAL HISTORY:

Worldclass & Expansive Exhibition Comes to Midland

By Kiley Mallard

 

 

A simple strand of pearls has become a staple of an American woman's wardrobe, and yet, not so long ago, these gems were reserved for royalty and the very wealth. Pearls: A Natural History, a traveling exhibit opening March 15 at the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science & Art at the Midland Center for the Arts, shows not only how these jewels reached their current prevalence, but also how they are formed and how surprisingly diverse they really are.

The common image of the pearl, round, creamy white, worn in strands or as stud earrings, is deceptive. Pearls come in many shapes and colors - amber, black, brown, purple, pink, gray, coral, violet. This variety is demonstrated through the 600 objects containing nearly 500,000 pearls on display in this exhibition. Pieces come from all over the world, including Russia, England, France, Monaco, Germany, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Tahiti, and the United States.
 

Michael Tiknis, President and CEO of the Midland Center for the Arts, sees the exhibition as another step in the Center's continuing efforts to promote cultural tourism throughout mid-Michigan. "We are working to build a reputation for a world-class museum exhibition and, in general, the pursuit of excellence."
       

"The area has seen some important developments in museum expansion," adds Bruce Winslow, Director of the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science & Art, citing the Marshall Frederick's Museum, the Saginaw Art Museum, the Studio 23 Art Center, the new Midland County Historical Museum and the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science & Art as examples. "The region deserves to enjoy world class exhibitions and Pearls will send the message that the Saginaw Valley has much to offer the state of Michigan as a destination point for cultural programs."
      

Midland will receive the exhibition from the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Other cities that received the show include New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto and after making its stop in mid-Michigan, Pearls will go to London, Tokyo and other international cities. The sight of Midland printed next to such large well-known cities may at first seem odd. Why come here? "The Center actively went after this exhibition. It is no accident," says Tiknis.

"We had previously worked with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who organized the exhibit in collaboration with The Field Museum in Chicago, on The Nature of Diamonds exhibit a couple years ago, so they knew of the quality of our work."

Flint native Gerhard Schlanzky designed both this exhibit and its predecessor, The Nature of Diamonds, which made a stop in Midland in 2002. The feel of this exhibit is in sharp contrast with that of Diamonds. The diamond exhibit was sparkling and cold in accordance with the nature of the gems displayed. The pieces were installed in steel with hard edges. With the pearls exhibit, Schlanzky went in a completely different direction. Unlike diamonds, which are forged deep in the earth under immense pressure, living animals create pearls. Schlanzky capitalized on this difference, giving Pearls a glowing warmth through the use of soft colors, capturing the shape of the gems in the curved wood used throughout.

Winslow describes the exhibit as "elegant, professional, scholarly and comprehensive" and Tiknis calls it "elegant and dazzling."

 

Winslow claims the real experience of the exhibit is how all the pieces have been brought together. "The world-class scholarship of the American Museum of Natural History in New York allowed them to be able to blend these pieces together so smoothly that the exhibition flows naturally between the beauty and science and history of pearls," he explains.

Pearls is divided into seven sections. The first section plunges visitors into a virtual undersea environment. Projections of divers going back and forth from the sea floor to the surface combined with the sound of bubbles give visitors the sensation of being submerged.

The second section is an in-depth look at how pearls are created. Guests may be surprised to learn that it is usually a parasite, not the infamous grain of sand, that serves as the nucleus of a pearl. Scanning electron micrographs reveal the layered nature of pearls, magnifying them up to 50,000 times their usual size. On display in this section are 50-million-year-old fossil pearls and 100-million- year old fossil ammonite as well as a dress ornament front the court of Czarina Elizavete Petrovna, brooches and a contemporary piece by Ella Gafter for Ellagem.

In the Central Gallery, guests receive an overview of the sections to come. A Giant Clam, the world's largest bivalve, holds a replica of the largest known pearl ever made. A portrait of Elizabeth I shows the popularity of pearl-embroidered clothes and jewelry during the Renaissance. The pearl and precious stone brooch given to Queen Victoria by her husband on their third wedding anniversary in 1843 and rare Vietnamese pearls, on public display for the first time, round out this section.

The next areas explain the differences between marine, freshwater and cultured pearls, including an extensive look at how habitat destruction has endangered many freshwater species. In both the marine and freshwater pearl sections, examples of different mollusks, and the pearls they produce and items made from these gems are on display. An example of a marine mollusk, the La Paz pearl oyster, is displayed with a 1,800 year old Ecuadorian pendant carved from a La Paz shell.

The central feature of the freshwater area is a necklace whose pearls took 25 years to collect. The freshwater section also discusses the Mississippi watershed, home to the most diverse population of freshwater mollusks in the world, and Muscatine, Iowa, famous for its production of pearl buttons in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the cultured pearl section, visitors learn that the art and science of perliculture started 800 years ago in China. Strands of these jewels have been loaned by several of the world's leading pearl companies, including Tasaki Shinjui, Tahiti Perles, Paspaley Pearling and Jewelmer.

Finally, to round out the exhibit, visitors are given a glimpse at the importance of the pearl throughout human history with historic and cultural significant displays. Examples of these include ornaments from the Hopewell Culture, a North American Indian civilization that thrived in the Ohio River valley from 200 B.C. to 500 A.D., pendants by Renaissance goldsmiths, jewelry from the maharajahs and nizams of India, and a shell diadem from Empress Josephine of France.

Also scattered throughout the exhibition are pieces of jewelry once owned or worn by celebrities. One just piece is Marilyn Monroe's Mikimoto cultured pearl necklace, a gift from her husband Joe DiMaggio, on their honeymoon in Japan in 1954. Pearls worn by former first lady Barbara Bush and a replica of the necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's will also be displayed.

Exclusive to the Midland showing of the exhibit are items on loan from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. "We have gone out on our own to add these pieces to the exhibit," Winslow explains. "We contacted Hubert Bari, Director of the National Natural History Museum in Doha, a curator we worked with on The Nature of Diamonds who has special contacts around the world for exceptional jewels, to find some pieces to add to the exhibit."

These include a Nepalese Crown, a pearl drop pendant and the Cartier Sultan Necklace and earrings. Also on loan from a private collection is the Black Beauty necklace, the most significant piece of black pearl jewelry in existence. "The pieces (Bari) found are some of the most extraordinary examples of pearls anywhere. These pieces were chosen because of their rarity and magnificence," states Winslow.

The exhibition will take a full month to install. "Alden B. Dow Museum staff is installing the exhibition furniture, walls and exhibitry," explains Winslow, who is also overseeing the project. "Then the staff from the American Museum of Natural History in New York arrive to create condition reports on the artifacts and to install them with our assistance.

"The whole exhibition is fascinating," says Tiknis when asked what the highlight of the show is. Winslow agrees. "The comprehensive scope of the exhibition for displaying the finest examples of pearls, of all types," he said when asked the same question.
However, Winslow goes on to cite many of his favorite pieces including the Black Beauty Pearl Necklace, the Nepalese Crown, and the coral/orange colored Melo pearls. "Really, there are so many diverse examples of what makes this exhibition spectacular, it is hard to distinguish just a few examples," he states with finality.

Pearls: A Natural History will be at the Alden B. Down Museum of Science & Art from March 15 through July 18th. Exhibit hours will be Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday noon to 6 pm. Tickets are $11 per adult, $5 per child (12 and under) and $5 per adult member ($3 per child member) of Alden B. Dow Museum of Science & Art and Friends of the Midland Center for the Arts. To purchase a ticket, contact the MCFTA box office at 989-631-8250 or 800-523-7649.
For more information call the numbers above or visit www.mcfta.org.