The Circle and the Line: The Jewelry of Betty Cooke

By Jeannine Falino (Author) and Eleanor Hughes (Editor)   Betty Cooke has been called variously “an icon within the tradition of modernist jewelry” and “a seminal figure in American Modernist studio jewelry.” Her pieces have been shown nationally and internationally, and are included in a number of museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) in New York. Cooke is regarded as an important role model for other artists and craftspeople. Her jewelry style is influenced by Bauhaus and modernism, simple and pure, both geometric and minimalist; given her early aspirations to become a sculptor, it is not surprising that she thinks of her jewelry as "sculpture in motion.” Fred Lazarus, former director of Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where Cooke trained and taught for many years, has said of Cooke’s work, “There is an enduring timelessness about her work, and today, as she did 50 years ago, she continues to create work tha