About Kubik
History
Those who learned from Klaus Ullrich at Pforzheim´s academy of art and design and then, as his assistant, trained jewelry design students for several years, doesn´t need to prove his competence in the field of jewelry design. Especially since this professor for jewelry design, like his colleague Reinhold Reiling, was one of the important teachers who decisively influenced the development of modern jewelry culture in the second half of the 20th century, even far beyond the boarders of Germany. More than just a few of their former students are owners of renowned jewelry firms and goldsmith´s ateliers today. One of them is Kurt Kubik who decided to work self-employed when he finished his academic career.
When in 1980 the well established jewelry firm Käthe Ruckenbrod in Heidelberg was looking for a new owner, Kurt Kubik took his chance. „Back then, there was hardly any company that had a comparably comprehensive collection of handcrafted jewelry,“ Kubik still enthuses today. Moreover, the Ruckenbrod firm, which was founded in the 1940s, was still one of the most important manufacturers of enameled objects in 1980.
This tradition was kept alive until 1990. The company had a large collection of enameled Items, comprising some artworks of outstanding artistic quality, which were purchased by leading international crafts museums such as in New York and Frankfurt. The enameled bowls designed by Ruckenbrod and Kubik were even used in Japan for the tea ceremony and were offered for sale in the galleries of
top.-class international department stores. Such a reputation enabled the Heidelberg company, even under its new management, to establish a multitude of international contacts.
In 1990, Kubik moved his atelier into new, more modern rooms. Their architecture harmonizes perfectly with the clear formal idiom of his jewelry and the newly created collection of watches which Kurt Kubik is still expanding and developing with his creative ideas. It is not only his enthusiasm for contemporary jewelry that inspires this designer and company manager, who was born in Graz, Austria, to come up with always new and innovative creations. Fascinated by the incredible variety that can be found particularly in the reduced and often minimalist forms of modern jewelry, Kubik always challenges the limits of what is technically feasible. Thus, for example, he created a tension-ring embellished with a 16 carat emerald. „I´m sure that so far, nobody else has dared to try this,“ he explains. Kubik is a purist, also when choosing his materials, Platinum as the noblest of whites and 18-carat gold, to be complemented by the most precious gemstones, are a must for him produce the stylish character of his pieces.