The sculptors featured in this exhibit mark the height of American sculpture, straddling figurative and modernist styles. The work was overshadowed by more popular, modern forms for many years. However, the classic imagery and sheer beauty of this work is timeless.

These artists weren't necessarily concerned with social or moral issues, but with beauty and allegory.

The 15 bronze sculptures on display were made between 1886 and 1939. They recall a time when sculptors enjoyed a strong patronage and did larger-scaled commissioned works for businesses, homes and gardens, and supplemented their commissions with smaller-scaled studio pieces such as these.

The demand for bronze statues of Civil War heroes led to the beginning of the art foundry in America in the 1850s. Before that, generations of sculptors traveled to Europe to learn the trade and cast their works in foundries there.

At the entrance is John Talbott Donoghue's striking, four-foot tall "The Young Sophocles" (1886). A larger version of this statue won an honorable mention at the Paris Salon that year. Here, the Greek dramatist plays an instrument made from the shell of a turtle with the horns of a ram. Like a conductor, the delicate hands, raised in position to play the instrument, dramatize the action.

Two heads by Isamu Noguchi show a change in his style. The earlier head of "Martha Graham" (1929) is rougher in texture than the smoother and rounder "Tsuneko-San (Head of a Japenese [sic] Girl)" (1931.) The latter, of a maid whom he knew, has a bowed head and a haunting expression of both serenity and submission.

Noguchi, also famous for his clean and curvy furniture designs, worked on stage sets for Martha Graham. It is noted that she didn't like his head of her because it showed a side of her that she didn't want anyone to see. "He had seen too deeply this time, even for me," it is written that she said.

Malvina Cornell Hoffman's ethnographic works "Mongolian Archer" (1932) and "Uday Shankar (Hindu Dancer)" (1933) are athletically exotic and colored with rich patinas.

There are three jaw-droppers in the exhibit:

Josef Mario Korbel's Art Deco "Nocturne" (1920) has an iridescent green patina brushed lightly on a night-black female body like the light from the moon.

Paul Manship's sundial "The Days and Hours" (1916) has astrological signs carved around the base and angels circling behind the head of a seated woman like a halo. Manship is famous for his Prometheus Fountain in Rockefeller Center.

Lastly, Arthur B. Davis's hand-sized "Listeners" (no date) appears out of place in this collection with its two figures evocative of primitive cutout doll sculptures enhanced with different-colored patinas. The strength of this piece is not in complicated lines and forms, but more in the simple but powerful gestures.

Jewelry of Hawai'i

This boar tusk and sterling silver buckle, 1887-1889, is attributed to H.F. Wichman. The buckle is from the 'Iolani Palace Collection. Photos from the Honolulu Academy of Art

What she found along the way was that, for jewelers here, it wasn't all about business. It was also about art — an art form of miniature sculptures that echoed the Island lifestyle, beautiful surroundings and history made to wear on moving, breathing, dancing bodies.

"I selected the artists who had a large body of work and were well known in the Islands," says Dickson. She focused on many elements of jewelry design for this exhibit: design motifs, materials, manipulation of materials and design styles.

Although not inclusive, the 100-plus pieces in this exhibit were culled both from private collections and from those at the academy and 'Iolani Palace. They date from Victorian-style work made in the 1870s to more contemporary pieces made in the 1990s.

"I started with wanting to find out how jewelry got its start in Hawai'i," says Dickson. "Although Western artists sketched native jewelry such as the lei palaoa, they didn't have the foresight to ask what these braided human hair necklaces with carved fishhooks meant. So the real starter, as far as jewelers, was H.F. Wickman, who struggled for a year as a jeweler in Hawai'i. He caught King Kalakaua's attention and was commissioned by him to make medals. He was so successful that he became the jeweler to the royal family."

A small notebook (1932) from Dawkins-Benny is opened to the page of the sketched design of the lapel pin, "Hawaiian Lodge Pin: Aha Hui Ka'ahumanu," that is on display.

The case of Ming's carved ivory pieces is a stunner. Wook Moon began the business in 1938 and many talented artists got their start in his employ. Ming's standard of wearability and his lifetime guarantee to repair any piece of jewelry bought in the store were legendary.

Inspired by the lei, leaves and flowers of Hawai'i, Ming's carved ivory pieces are a unique reflection of our Island culture.

Internationally renowned Stanley O. Shinkawa's "Plumeria Flower Lei" and "Jade Flower Lei" (1975-1980) are exquisite examples. In the same case, John Roberts's delicate "Maunaloa Lei Parure" (1960-70s) with matching bracelet, earrings and ring, and his "Papaya Leaf Design" brooch and earrings are beautifully detailed. The labor involved in carving these pieces must have been demanding in its precision.

Additional Ming pieces are on display, along with the raw material it took to create them — the tip of an elephant's tusk. It was a good decision on the part of Dickson to include this in the exhibit, as it affords us a glimpse of how time-consuming the process of carving ivory for these pieces of jewelry must have been.

Isami Doi, who was also a well known painter and printmaker, created the most fanciful jewelry in the exhibit. His ivory and sterling silver "Seahorse Brooch" (1939-50) and "Flying Unicorn" (1950s) are ageless.

Dickson also included wonderful pieces by contemporary jewelry artists Merle Boyer, Frances Pickens and Leland Toy, as well as the work by the popular jewelry businesses Na Hoku and Maui Divers.

The second time I visited the exhibit, two women were discussing how happy they were that the academy added this jewelry collection to the permanent exhibit in the gallery. Unfortunately, the display is temporary. For anyone who makes, loves or sells jewelry, this show is a must-see.