Robert Mazlo
Author jeweller
Born in Beirut in 1949, Robert Mazlo’s first goal in life is to become a writer. He is still a teenager when he decides to dedicate himself to jewellery design, just like one would enter into a religion. That is, with the firm determination to learn a “real” job, the only way in his opinion to make his passion for writing sustainable. But his attraction to goldsmithing and jewellery making, this “complete” art, as he likes to define it, would never leave him. For this alchemy of stones and metals, though based on a strict discipline, can happen to be a fabulous narration support. And to give life and form to his stories, this insatiable storyteller could not dream of a more beautiful tribune than a jewel, this genuine picture book, placed at closest to the body and on display for all to see …
After being initiated to the delicate art of Phoenician jewellery, Robert Mazlo leaves Lebanon for northern Italy, in order to study classical jewellery at the Istituto Benvenuto Cellini in Valenza-Po.
Paradoxically, he graduates in 1972 from this temple of tradition, as top of his class and with the title of Maestro d’arte, thanks to a “ready-made” piece of jewellery, conceived as an homage to Duchamp and made from electronic circuits.
A both tender and insolent way to challenge the conformism of his teachers and already, rooted in his mind, this desire to break with the jewellery tradition, trapped at that time in obsolete and boring aesthetic standards…
An author above all, but brought up in the respect owed to art and aware of the initiatic value of jewellery work, Robert Mazlo has always refused to go beyond the scope defined by his medium. For according to him, precious matter is an opponent that is worth being tamed. It is at this price, that of the mastery of know-hows, that a genuine work of art can be created, beyond the cleavages existing between art and craft.
Remaining faithfull to this demanding framework made of rigor and surprises (the reaction of materials is always uncertain and random), Robert Mazlo aims to push the boundaries of his discipline. He thus fuels his works with the richness of his imagination and his infinite love for Art, punctuating them with references to the masters that have shaped his artistic sensibility.
“The first seventy-five years of the life of an artist the hardest to go through“…
Villon-Duchamp (1875-1963)
While remaining in the jewellery tradition (using old cut gemstones, complex and sophisticated textures, green gold alloy) but without complete respect to the traditional hierarchies of value, his works combine rough and refined materials, heterogeneous elements, both precious and antique, profane and religious. As an adept of the art of assemblage, he re-contextualizes and recycles fragments of broken or abandoned jewellery, to give life to aesthetically hybrid works, filled with a symbolic dimension, where both Man and jewellery are just links of a perpetual recycling process.
For Robert Mazlo, it is not so much about revolutionizing jewellery and breaking down idols than returning to fundamentals, by trying to draw up a bridge between his contemporaries and the sacred and talismanic value of jewellery.
Céline Robin
Exhibition curator
Seven lives…
1953
Beirut
1964
Lebanon
1964
Boarding school in Sidon in the high school built by Wojenski/Le Corbusier
1968
Last moments of carelessness before leaving for Italy
1968
The "Françoise" dashboard
1968
Istituto Benvenuto Cellini, Valenza-Pô, Italy
1969
Initiation to Italian design and visual arts
1969
Jewellery drawings published in Orafo Valenzano
1969
First enamelled jewellery collection
1969
First collection of enamelled jewellery
1969
First collection of enamelled jewellery
1970
Benchwork
1970
Back for the third year in Valenza
1970
Visit of "Oreficerie di Sempre" exhibition in Milan
1971
Painting studio
1971
Wax thread maker - Prototype#1
1971
Wax thread maker - Prototype#2
1972
Conception of the first logo
1972
Invention of the "anellographe"
1972
At the Milan Fair to present the wax thread maker
1972
At the Milan fair with Prof. Elio Carmi of Milan Polytechnical school
1972
First sculpture
1972
Graduation - Back to Lebanon
1973
First own studio in Beirut
1973
View of the studio in Beirut
1973
Manifesto on the occasion of the first show in Beirut
1973
"La Mathématique du Bijou" series
1973
"La Mathématique du Bijou" series
1973
"La Mathématique du Bijou" series
1975
Lebanon war
1976
Article in L'orient-Le Jour
1977
Installation of the studio in France
1978
First figurative works
1979
"Le fil du Temps" in the collection of the Wuppertal Museum
1979-83
Participations to FIAC
1979-94
Collaboration with S.T. Dupont
1979-94
Collaboration with S.T. Dupont
1980-85
"Archéologie du Futur" series
1981-84
Design studio
1980-85
"Archéologie du Futur" series
1981-84
Conception of the Swatch
1981-84
Swatch episod
1981-84
Conception of the Swatch
1980-85
"Archéologie du Futur" series
1983
Benchwork
1985
Design of the Rockwatch for Tissot/ETA
1986
"Juliette" pendant
1987
"Hermès Trismégiste" in the collection of the Deutsches Edelstein Museum
1992
Creation of the ideal studio
1973-98
20000 ans or Homage to Kubrick
1992
Benchwork
1996
1996 Publication of "À la recherche du Tarot perdu"
1997
"Stravinsky" pendant
2004
Opening of the Mazlo show-room in Paris
2007
Alchemical test - Version 2000
2009
In the studio, wearing the Garde-temps
2010
With Anthony Chalhoub - Tanagra/Kuwait
2010
With the Chalhoub family in Kuwait
2010
In the UAE for Tanagra
2010
Opening of galerie LA Joaillerie par Mazlo - Paris
2011
"Diamant comme Moi" exhibition
2013
"Le Divin(é)Moi" exhibition
2016
Voiceover for Chloé Mazlo’s short movie "Diamanteurs"
2016
Launching of the Silk Roads collection for Tanagra UAE
2016
Silk Roads collection - Tanagra/Dubai
2017
"Sacrés Outils!" exhibition
2018
Foundation of the Robert Mazlo endowment Fund for art and contemporary art jewellery
2019
Actor in Chloé Mazlo’s short movie "Asmahan"
2019
At the studio
2019
Preparing the Tarot exhibition, coming in 2020