LALAOUNIS MARRIES THE ART OF THE MYTH WITH THE DECORATIVE ARTS TO CREATE JEWELLERY OF A RICH AND MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY.

Impassioned by the ghosts of the golden age of Classical Greece, Ilias Lalaounis has created a prolific body of work that is founded in the traditions of one of history's great civilisations.

The art of Lalaounis is at once poetry, philosophy, history and technology and though it is a modern expression of a rich cultural heritage it is inspired by history's finest moments, by the perfection of nature, the beauty and grace of the stars and the wondrous microscopic structures that are the foundations of life itself.

This great jeweller's unique talents have been officially recognised by the French Academy of Fine Arts, which last year admitted Lalaounis to its ranks. The only jeweller to be embraced by the Academy, Lalaounis considered it an honour, not only for himself and for his country but for the art of jewellery itself. In an acceptance speech to the Academy he emphasised that aesthetic evolution is defined not only by the fine arts but also, and to a greater degree, by the applied arts; by furniture, utensils, adornments and the general trappings of everyday life.

Sitting behind his desk amidst the opulent accessories of an internationally successful business empire that spans the major capitals of Athens, Paris, Geneva, New York and London as well as fifteen additional branches throughout the world, Lalaounis speaks with the warmth of the men who frequent the myriad coffee houses of Greece. "I respect fine art very much", he explains, "because the artists are the drivers that guide us. They work with unlimited vision and restrains, but the applied arts and jewellery are significant to the evolution of both civilisation and the aesthetic education of everyone.

"The art of the paleolithic peoples began with adornment of the self. People wanted to have something to let them stand apart from others, to be different. This was the first art, to have a symbol to help define the self".

It is a philosophy borne of decades of study and research into the civilisations that constitute mankind's greatest.

"DESPITE ALL THE CENTURIES THAT SEPARATE ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE, THE TECHNOLOGY IN CREATING JEWELLERY IS NOT ALL THAT DIFFERENT".

Lalaounis, unlike most any other jeweller, seeks his inspirations in the deeper aspects of life and has created a series of collections that read like a voyage through time. From the beginnings of civilisation where he took inspiration from the simple adornments of the paleolithic and neolithic peoples, to form his first major exhibition entitled "Blow Up", through the applied arts and rich mythology of his beloved ancient Greece, across the seas to the peripheries of the then known world in Mesopotamia with its intricate religious ornamentation.

The religious pieces of Jerusaleum inspired his Holy Land collection and his Islamic inspired jewellery, which was exhibited at Istanbul's leading museum of Islamic art led to Lalaounis being called the best ambassador for Greece, given that his work embraced two normally hostile cultures.

Lalaounis also journeyed to the unchartered waters of the Far East, creating beautiful works as delicate as those of the Chinese and Japanese dynasties. closer to home, he designed the Place Vendome collection based on the glories of the French Empire, the British flavoured Tudor collection and more recently he has exhibited a collection of jewellery known as the Amerindia Collection, inspired by the culture and mythology of North America's Indians and is presently absorbed in the rich mysticism of South America.

Jeweller seems an insufficient moniker for a man who has studied so much of civilisation. Perhaps Lalaounis is an archaeologist unearthing the past to help define the modern human condition?

"It is fantastic to be learning everything about these people; it makes me very happy", enthuses Lalaounis. "But you know, the differences in the arts of all the civilisations I have studied are to me negative. The Apostle Paul said to the Athenians, 'All have the same blood'. That is my idea behind the different civilisations and all these people; the differences are all on the surface. We all have the same soul, only the expression differs. I can see the Greek civilisation in all these civilisations.

"Having studied these civilisations I found in each country and art one idea, one Greek idea, I think the Greeks understood the human soul and they presented this in their art. This is the classical idea. The Greeks found the essence of everything and it is this purity and simplicity and beauty that is Greece and the Greek culture and Art. It is something Picasso, the biggest artist of our time, discovered; to distill the essence from a subject or theme".

It is this idea Lalaounis has embraced for the art of his jewellery. A jewel or a work of bejewelled art is not merely jewellery; it contains a story, it has something to say, it has a soul. "This classical Greek idea that behind every object there is a story is an international notion. Although my jewellery has many folkloric inspirations it is not folkloric at all. My pieces sell very well all over the world, in France, Germany, England, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, the Virgin Islands...they are international. Their story is understood all over the world.
"Perhaps I do have the spirit of an archaeologist", he considers. "Originally I was a salesman and I think a good salesman must have the spirit of a fisherman or a hunter. It is no good to sell just to make money but for the victor. But I was not a fisherman or a hunter; I don't like to kill.

"However, I have also created pieces based in biology. The human body consists of billions of pieces of jewellery when seen through an electronic microscope. I have also created a collection based on astronomy and the movement of the planets. I also created pieces of jewellery based in psychology so I am not just an archaeologist, I am a geologist and a sociologist and an astronomer but I think that in the final analysis I am an artist".

"THE HUMAN BODY CONSISTS OF BILLIONS OF PIECES OF JEWELLERY WHEN SEEN THROUGH A MICROSCOPE"

The story of this master story-teller is as simple and as absorbing as his bejewelled narratives. Coming from three generations of jewellers, Ilias finished his economics degree in October 1940 as the Nazi anschluss escalated. "My father was in partnership with my uncle Zolotas and at that time you understand there was no one to run the shop. I was preparing to begin my studies in law when they asked me to help run the business. The war of course dragged on and I became very interested in the jewellery business and in the art of jewellery which became very important to me.

"I have been very lucky", confides Lalaounis, placing a hand on the carved wooden arm of his chair. "I think I have the requirements, the knowledge, to be a very good businessman and I have had a great success all around the world with this business but after fifty years I would very much like to finish with it and I am very lucky to have four very lovely and very capable daughters, three of whom are in the business. The eldest one designed this as a gift to me", he says proudly displaying the elegant signature ring on his hand. "My other daughter is in Boston studying to be curator of my business when I retire from it. I intend establishing a museum in Athens, at the foot of the Acropolis, to exhibit all of the fifty collections of jewellery I have designed, together with all my documentation, my designs, photographs and films so that everyone can appreciate the importance of jewellery to humanity and to civilisation".

With the opening, in 1976, of his Paris Gallery near Place Vendome, Lalaounis presented a short film entitled "Dawn of Art", a lyrical essay on the sources of his inspiration. Since then his major exhibitions have been accompanied by short film works.

"Although I am tiring of the business I continue to find inspiration to create my collections because this is my hobby, and a hobby for me is about love; it is a necessity. I am very lucky because when I started designing it was more a hobby than a business and like everybody else I started by imitating ideas from abroad. Then with my studies in archaeology and the like I saw the importance of introducing pieces based on the eternal themes of the museum pieces of Greece. That was the start thirty five years ago".

It was by some benign act of the gods that at this time Lalaounis was approached by two cultured English ladies who asked him whether he might do some copies of certain Myceaenian pieces that were in the archaeological museum of Athens. Lalaounis and his team of young Greek craftsmen began copying these exquisite examples of Hellenic art. With the precision of a military unit the jewellers would descend on an unsuspecting museum carrying their mysterious looking bags and there were more than a few occasions when attendants wary of a possible heist would raise the alarm on these suspicious characters.

Despite these amusing interludes, the jewellers gained an invaluable understanding of both the spirit of those ancient times and the techniques of the various periods of Greek culture and art. "You know what is interesting?", He challenges. "In spite of all these centuries that separate ancient and modern Greece, the technology in creating jewellery is not all that different. The prototypes of the pieces we produce use very similar methods to those used in ancient civilisations. The series we produce from these incorporate very different and very modern technology but for the first ones...you see, the continuation of the artistic tradition is there. My artisans and craftsmen come from the mountain villages of Greece. Many would consider them peasants but when they start to work, to create these pieces of jewellery, you can see that it is in their blood. There is a continuation through the ages with the great art and craft of Ancient Greece".

By embarking on a path of logic that would have impressed his country's brightest philosophers, Lalaounis and his team of craftsmen looked to the past and helped to usher in a new golden age for Greek jewellery and today Greece is again one of the centres of the world's finest examples of this specialised art. Many of Lalaounis' collaborators on this journey through history have since departed on their own journeys into the world of jewellery design and fabrication and Lalaounis speaks of their achievements with paternal pride, for together and as a band apart, these talented individuals have rediscovered a tradition that has been lost for many centuries.

It was not long before imitation became inspiration, with the spirit of antiquity fashioned in the tastes of modern times and Lalaounis tapped into a sentiment which sought those lost links with the past. The first examples of this rediscovered tradition were exhibited in 1957 and Lalaounis considers this to be the birthdate of the renaissance in Greek jewellery. In the decades since, Lalaounis has become one of the reigning Gods of jewellery design. Together with the House of Zolotas, for whom the young Ilias worked all those years ago, the name of Lalaounis stands apart as a pinnacle of superior design and craftsmanship.
Lalaounis is well aware of his place in his culture and understands his responsibilities.

As early in his career as 1957 he founded the "Greek Jewellers Association" with a small band of equally dynamic jewellers. In the early seventies, he organised an international jewellery exhibition in Athens comprising the finest works of Van Cleef & Arpels; Bulgari, Rene Kern and Harry Winston. At the invitation of Archbishop Macarios he lectured to the Cypriot Goldsmiths; the Polish government then invited him to lecture throughout their country after which he presented them with a research paper addressing the rational organisation of goldsmithery in a socialist economy. America's famed Smithsonian Institute invited Lalaounis to lecture on his work at Washington's Museum of Art and Technology. The University of Archaeology and Anthropology of Pennsylvania invited him, in 1984, to lecture and to exhibit his "Helen of Troy" collection. The same year he was awarded honorary citizenship of Houston, Texas. The Mayor of Jerusalem invited Lalaounis to present his "Treasures of the Holy Land" in an exhibition organised by the Museum of Jerusalem.

This master jeweller's diplomatic talents have been further acknowledged with a multitude of personal honours. In addition to his election as a full member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, he was, in 1990, elected "Membre Correspondent" of the French Academy; the President of the Italian Republic awarded Lalaounis the title of "Commandatore Dell'Ordine Al Merito Della Republica Haliara" for his contribution to the arts and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Greece ordained him "Archon Exarchos".

His role as an artist and as an arbiter of style is well recognised but he is in the business of producing jewellery and an important aspect of his position is the overseeing of this production. Lalaounis, in his own romantic way, compares himself to an orchestra conductor. The maestro must co-ordinate his designers, his craftsmen and his specialists to produce a synthesis of gold, silver and precious stones that will delight the senses.

The very finest examples of his collected works have been catalogued in a beautifully bound book that could take its place alongside the best art tomes. Entitled METAMORPHOSIS, the collection is more than a catalogue. An expression of the man himself, it is a dedication of friendship and thanks to those who have helped Lalaounis throughout his lengthy and enviable career. It is also both a romantic rumination and a philosophical treatise on the role of jewellery in contemporary society, and lastly, it is testament to the passion of a man who, in his own words, 'has spent an entire lifetime lost in his art'.

"I have created over fifty collections to date and as I study the art and history in all of the ten thousand pieces I have made in my life I can see and I can feel the continuation of not only our culture but of all the world's great civilisations".

Like a modern day Ulysses, Ilias Lalaounis has chartered the enchanted waters of lost ages and strange universes, guiding his crew through the marvels of time. Their odyssey has resulted in a body of work that speaks to their contemporaries of these faraway lands; pieces that evoke the ghosts of lost civilisations, the spirit of the heavens, the magic and poetry of nature and the beauty of art.

A voyage blessed by the gods.