Dorothea Prühl
Dorothea Prühl’s jewellery is sculptural, instinctively gestural, driven by observations from nature. Working freely in metal and wood, there is no ambiguity in her work. Her forms, whilst reduced, convey the very essence of the things they represent – the rhythm and repetition drawing ever closer to the core. ‘Dorothea Prühl’s works are great in every sense of the word … With her jewellery she has set standards, importantly and memorably so. Her necklaces are empowering – for wearers and viewers alike.’ – Florian Hufnagl.
Born in 1937 in the (then) German city of Breslau, Dorothea studied at the Hochschule für industrielle Formgestaltung Halle (Burg Giebichenstein). After working at VEB Gablona, she returned to Halle in 1966 to teach at Burg Giebichenstein. She was appointed professor and director of the department in 1994 and retired in 2002.
Her work is exhibited internationally and can be seen in collections including the Marzee Collection, The Rotasa Collection Trust, Art Museum Moritzburg Halle (Saale), CODA Museum Apeldoorn, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Hiko Mizuno Collection in Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the Dallas Museum of Art.
In 1999, Dorothea was awarded the first Marzee Prize and in 2009 and 2024 the Bavarian State Prize and in 2019 she was honoured with the Art Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt
This video is a brief explanation by Dorothea Prühl of the concept behind her necklace Kleine Vögel (Small Birds) to Marie-José van den Hout of Galerie Marzee. The necklace has been presented for the first time during FRAME – SCHMUCK 2026 in Munich from 4 to 8 March 2026. Two months prior to the final version Dorothea Prühl lays out the idea for the necklace with the main elements of the necklace. The final necklace remains the same, only the final arrangement and number of birds is different from the initial concept, with four small birds instead of five. The birds’ mutual movement, as if rushing through each other to quickly eat food from the ground (or table because that is where Dorothea places the food when she is in her workshop in Augustenberg) is the cental idea. A photo of the finished necklace can be seen at the end of the video. Please note that native subtitles of this video are in German which can be auto-translated to English.
