Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore September 2021 - January 2022
Betty Cooke: The Circle and the Line, the first major museum retrospective of the Baltimore artist’s work, features 160 objects drawn from public and private lenders. The exhibition is arranged chronologically, interspersed with sections that focus on the artist’s aesthetic, specific design activities and subject matter. These include early sketches and jewelry of birds and animals that were drawn from nature, her leather accessories, experiments with various media, and her clientele.
The exhibition design sets Cooke’s jewelry amid colorful galleries that feature graphics based upon her work. It is complemented with vintage photographs and quotations by the artist and others. Mannequins attired in Cooke’s jewelry are a nod to her longstanding, multi-generational clientele.
“The exhibiton presents a chronological tour through the designs of a preeminent mid-century artist, one who never lost that youthful bravado and ingenuity.”
— Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Washington Post
The Circle and the Line: The Jewelry of Betty Cooke
Exhibition Catalogue
This volume features a fully-illustrated checklist, “Reflections” by leading patrons and collectors of Cooke’s work, an illustrated timeline, a selected bibliography and a list of collections containing jewelry by Betty Cooke. London: D Giles Ltd., in association with The Walters Art Museum, 2020. Hardcover, 96 pages, 8 x 7 in. ISBN: 978-1-911282-77-8
Lectures & Workshops
“The Line and the Circle: Over 70 years of Unending Designs by Betty Cooke,” ASJRA, Association for the Study of Jewelry and Related Arts, October 10, 2020
“Betty Cooke in Conversation with Jeannine Falino,” Zoom interview, Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston, December 28, 2020