For the past decade, Rob and Jaap Thalen have been championing the myriad merits of pure silver. Once a ubiquitous material, silver fell by the wayside with the advent of stainless steel and aluminum. Intrigued by the medium's inherent purity, unique luster, and enduring nature, Rob and Jaap embarked on a mission to re-introduce fine silver to the world.

Rob Thalen.
Jaap Thalen.

Rob, who took up silversmithing as a child, studied the craft in his native Netherlands before launching a career as a sculptor in 1982. After relocating to Belgium in 2001, Rob was joined by his son Jaap, who had studied architecture but felt that the field lacked creative freedom. In 2006, Rob and Jaap founded Thalen & Thalen and began making a range of contemporary works in silver. Marrying incendiary craftsmanship with a sharp artistic vision, Rob and Jaap create objects that transcend the boundaries between fine art and the everyday.

Thalen & Thalen, High Zen Bowls, 2015. Fine Silver .999/000, W. 9.84 x H. 11.42 inches. Hand-hammered, Hallmarked (in the Netherlands). Courtesy of Thalen & Thalen/Long-Sharp Gallery.

Inspired by nature—the texture of dried mud, the shimmering surface of a body of water—as well as people and human interaction, Rob and Jaap aim to accentuate silver’s tactile nature. Rob says, “Touch is one of the main senses we have to discover our world. I remember the very first time that I was confronted with a sculpture by Jean Arp at a museum and the guard became very upset with me for touching it. If we create a sculpture with a certain texture and shape you should be able to follow the lines, shapes, surfaces, with your fingers to experience what the sculptor put into it. Pure silver, as we use it, is already a very tactile material that challenges you to touch it and we always say—imagine after all of the hours and the effort that we put into giving this creation the look and feel that it has, we put a sign that says ‘please don’t touch.’ It would be criminal.”

Indianapolis’ Long-Sharp Gallery has been representing Thalen & Thalen in the United States since 2015. The gallery’s owner, Rhonda Long-Sharp, says, “I first saw [Rob and Jaap’s] work in Palm Beach approximately six years ago and the attraction was immediate. What drew me to it was, number one: the design; number two: the tactile nature of the works; and number three: the special brightness of pure silver. When I learned that their works were hand crafted from pure silver adn that the vessels were raised from a single sheet, the entire concept of the work began to challenge my thinking about contemporary silver and its place in the fine art world. We acquired our first work from them a year later.”

Thalen & Thalen, Mega Landscape Cone, 2014. Fine Silver .999/000, W. 35.43, H. 13.78 inches. Hand-hammered, Hallmarked (in the Netherlands). Courtesy of Thalen & Thalen/Long-Sharp Gallery.

Long-Sharp Gallery will be exhibiting a number of works by Thalen & Thalen at the upcoming Masterpiece London fair (June 30-July 6), including a pair of Zen Bowls and select pieces from the landscape series—a collection of objects united by their undulating surfaces, marked by rollings peaks and valleys. One of the works that will be offered from the series during Masterpiece London—Mega Landscape Cone—is currently on view at the Gemeentemuseum den Haag as part of the exhibition Silver Art in The Netherlands (through August 21, 2016). On Saturday, July 2, Rob and Jaap will lead a talk and sign copies of their publication Silver as Fine Art: Pure Silver, An Invitation to Our Senses in Long-Sharp Gallery’s booth (B-34).

While contemporary silver is still considered a niche market, Thalen & Thalen have made strides in helping the medium garner more widespread attention, especially in the realm of fine art. “It’s a similar story as photography—it took some decades to have that medium accepted as a fine art element," says Rob. "The number of artists that work in a free, creative environment is small—very small—but that doesn’t mean things don’t move. Luckily there are wonderful things being created.”

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