ROBERT LEE MORRIS
GALLERY
I created this ad for a show I had at JULIES ARTISANS gallery in 1977. Sculpture To Wear in the Plaza hotel had just closed leaving me with no place to show my work! I had just had the December 1976 cover of VOGUE and was in a massive state of flux. In between major moments of my life. I could not find any venue that wanted to take my work other than Julie’s place. None of the big stores knew what to do with my work even though I had been getting lots of editorial coverage from fashion magazines while at Sculpture to Wear. Bergdorfs, BonwitTeller, Bloomingdale’s, none of them knew where they would even put my work as there was no category for what I was making. It wasn’t costume or fine or estate jewelry. I went to Leo Castelli and Ivan Karp and many other SoHo galleries and while they all said they knew and loved my work they didn’t know what to do with it. Castelli told me to take it to the fashion editors but they couldn’t publish it unless I had a store to credit. What a frightening few months of my life. I was 29 years old. I had no other choice but to open my own gallery to showcase my own work and I asked all my favorite other like minded jewelry artists to join me. ( Ted Muehling, Cara Croninger, Patricia Von Muslin, Thomas Gentille, Arlene Fisch, Robert Ebendorf, and 30 other names.) Artwear was born in 1977 at 28 East 74 St. After 6 miserable months there with no walk-in traffic I was offered a prime space at West Broadway and Spring in the heart of SoHo. I was the first “designer” name to open in that neighborhood. August of 1978. I had $5 left to my name and was ready to abandon my NYC dream and return to rural New Hampshire a failure if the SoHo gallery didn’t work out. Within a week of opening I had thousands of walk in traffic and my career exploded. These knuckle rings have been a constant part of my long story and are still available on my gallery website today!
My iconic sculptural identity, my manipulation of metal tubes and concepts “Liquid Geometry” are revealed here… a blend of tribal earthy flavors and colors and sleek sci-fi futuristic forms. I have always loved layering as you see here. Yes it makes for BIGGER jewelry, but there are PLENTY of gutsy stylish people out there who NEED bigger jewelry to match their personality! Down with DITSY!
Happy Independence Day from my archive library..ERIC RHEIN earrings. Works of insane craftsmanship!
My earliest inspirations came from archeology and comic book illustrations. This armband was from 1976.
Some of my favorite pieces…DART COLLECTION from 1982.
Stills from my vintage RLM 1984 catalog. A few left on my website!
Great Fun pages from my 1984 RLM Catalog. Gabriel Reese ace volleyball star! Photos Klaus Laubmeyer
Stingray sculptures on their way to URBAN ZEN
PEBBLES from the late 80s were my split away from architecture to embrace soft flowing and organic stones. All wax carvings. The gunmetal plating was such a “thing” during the constructivist era in fashion and here the smooth stone forms are luscious in this matte charcoal finish. Just listed! So much work to list new pieces on my website😅
CROSS NECKLACES! The ultra iconic design that blew out of Artwear and my store for decades…these are the last of them. A silver, a gold plated and a brass one. Just listed! They brought me so much joy and I wore the silver bracelets wrapped many times around my wrists.
Beloved props. All my life I have collected these BELOVED pieces of wood or bone or fiber that continue to instruct and teach me, but work as divine props in my jewelry displays!
RLM CITY BLOCKS and RLM STONE AGE games I made out of solid bronze and nickel. They were prototypes of gift concepts I was developing for Neiman Marcus and Museum Stores. Each wooden box held a certain number of pieces. Boxes in many sizes so many price points. Desk play. I had so much fun carving the cartoon like waxes and then moving on to playing with them for hours.
A favorite collection: Donna Karan 1988 fall, black and gold Pebble theme. Backstage during the show.
A close up of the set of 3 Verdigris Vases I did in the early 90s after my license with Elisabeth Arden for lipstick and compact. I carved them out of wax and had molds made for glazed ceramic vases in 3 sizes.
All this is on its way to be sold through URBAN ZEN in NYC and Sag Harbor for the summer. It’s how the wheel turns, my link to DONNA KARAN just stays in place like a great fit. Visit UZ and see for yourself how her design genius flourishes.
Summer-Resort necklaces are dazzling punctuations while on a tropical vacation paired with flowing white caftans and oversized glamorous sunglasses.
My Knuckle Ring…Still going strong since 1975. Space age sexy
Easter 2025 looking back at some fun vintage pieces from my very early days.
I like ugly. The sparkly jewelry world has never grabbed me.
SAYOKO YAMAGUCHI, in the KANSAI YAMAMOTO wedding outfit 1982 Paris fall collection. This was my first collection with KANSAI and he wanted a breastplate for her and a spectacular headpiece as the finale for his runway show. I made it out of Chinese umbrellas and metal, and fashioned the breastplate to her body while the two of them sat for hours in my SoHo loft waiting for me to forge it. What a mind blowing experience for me after I had just won the 1981 Coty award for my jewelry for Calvin Klein. Fell in love with SAYOKO needless to say… world’s most beautiful model and most sought after from Paris shows.
Recent shot inside studio showing two gorgeous huge sheets of brass leaning against the drawers. Now I want an entire brass wall…..
Some of my fave bracelets over the years. Copper, silver, brass, leather, ebony, big ideas on display.
I made this Shakey Cuff today. I found these gold plated brass parts lying around the place so just thought I would finish this bagel cuff after waiting in a bin for 45 years.
WELCOME TO MY MUSEUM & GALLERY OF COLLECTIBLE WOMEN’S AND MEN’S JEWELRY
Herein you will find the archives from the Robert Lee Morris personal collection that has been slowly gathered over a 52 year range, containing works of art to wear and adore. These are all original handmade pieces of stunning women and men’s jewelry that have been created to sell through ARTWEAR jewelry gallery. These pieces come from the many collections that Robert made for fashion designers such as Geoffrey Beene, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors and Kansai Yamamoto. Many of the archives have now been selling through fine art auctions and it is exciting to see how the original values have soared.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Review of THE POWER OF JEWELRY by Robert Lee Morris on AMAZON
Robert Lee Morris is unquestioningly one of the most innovative designers of body ornament of our time. Long noted for his distinctive fusion of primal forms, hand workmanship, and cutting edge sensibility, his organic pieces are enthusiastically sought by connoisseurs of high fashion around the world. This book written by the artist himself and profusely illustrated with examples of his work, presents the varied production of his design genius over the course of his career. The many images of Morris’s work in metal and stone will fascinate anyone interested in the history if design and will be an inspiration and will be an inspiration to collectors, designers and students alike.
From Publishers Weekly
By the time he was 31, Morris had become one of the most influential jewelry designers in North America: his creations appeared all over fashion magazines like Vogue; his Manhattan jewelry store had become a favorite spot of celebrities like Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol; and his work was marching down the runways of Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Kansai Yamamoto and Donna Karan. In this coffee-table book cum memoir, Morris explains “how he grew from a self-taught jewelry designer to a recognizable brand name in such a relatively short time.” The designer, who is known for his “edgy blend of modern and tribal effects,” attributes his global sensibility to his college courses in anthropology and to his upbringing as an “Airforce brat.” He moved 23 times before he was 18 and lived for several years in Japan and Brazil. But its clear that the mainsprings of Morris’ success are his joyful, single-minded focus on his work and his savvy entrepreneurial spirit. Though his book contains asides on his marriage, his travels and his study of shamanism, it centers mostly on the origins of his signature creations, the development of the “designer jewelry” consumer niche in the 1970s and 80s, and the way he managed his brand “as if it were a wild horse in a rodeo.” Morris now designs up to 10 jewelry collections a year, and though the name-dropping can be a bit heavy-handed in spots, his memoir is full of friendly advice for young artists. Morris fans will appreciate this careful history, but readers unfamiliar with his designs may find themselves skipping pages to stare at the large, full-color photos of his smooth knuckle rings, gently bulging necklaces, mesh belts, herringbone collars and sensual bracelets. They are unlike anything else.
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