Catherine Noll
Catherine Noll was born on November 30, 1945 in Paris and died in 1994.
Granddaughter of the sculptor and furniture designer Alexandre Noll, she entered the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and, starting in 1972, specialized in jewelry design. In 1992, she took part in the 3rd Jewelry Triennial at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Represented in the collections of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in Paris, she fulfilled numerous private commissions and created jewelry collections for Christian Dior, Nina Ricci, Chanel, Baccarat and Yves Saint Laurent.
« I want my jewelry to be like fragments of tamed nature — sculptures one can wear and touch. »
— CATHERINE NOLL
TEXT BY CATHERINE DENEUVE, EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK CATHERINE NOLL, EDITION REGARD :
I remember discovering Catherine Noll’s jewelry in the 1970s, by chance, I believe on the Left Bank — perhaps on rue Jacob. I think it was their primitive yet sophisticated form that attracted me — the ivory, so difficult to work with, and the ebony as well — shapes so alluring, sensual, African, and yet so modern. A necklace made of large ivory rods with a central, plump, ovoid piece. I chose it as one would choose an object, a sculpture that I could wear and touch.
Like a pebble, like a natural object softened by an adventurous hand. I think that’s what deeply captivated me at first glance — those forms one might find, or imagine finding, in nature.
I believe she was very fortunate to have played, as a child no doubt, with those materials already shaped by her grandfather, Alexandre Noll — to have trained her eye and especially her hand through contact with wood and ivory, and to have never let go of them.
With the exhibition dedicated to her today, it is a rebirth — such is the fate of beautiful and genuine objects, rigorous and beyond fashion and time.
Catherine Deneuve.
