The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 39, September 30, 2007, Article 14

DICK JOHNSON EVALUATES MEDALS AT THE 30TH FIDEM CONGRESS

Dick Johnson writes: "And the Grand Prix, the top award of the 30th
FIDEM Congress, goes to ... drum roll please maestro ... Helder Batista
of Portugal. (Applause and cheers!)

"Batista had medals in both the main exhibit and 'FIDEM at 70'
parallel exhibition. The difference between the two is that the
main exhibit were medals created in the last two years, since the
2005 Congress. The parallel exhibit was composed of medallic items
created in the past, a retrospective of past FIDEM exhibits.

"A rumor circulated that the decision had been made before the
delegates even arrived in Colorado Springs.   Did the current
exhibitors even have a chance at the prize? Do I detect a touch
of cronyism here between artist and judges? The winning artist's
medallic creations in the present exhibition were rather lackluster
in this critic's opinion.

"Had the officials wanted to honor Batista, they should have given
him a 'Lifetime Achievement Award.' But then give the Grand Prix --
as it should have been -- to the best medallic piece in the show.

"Long before the awards banquet, I examined every medal in the
exhibition. I ranked every medal from zero to ten based on what I
considered its desirability, its potential popularity. I had done
this at the last FIDEM held in America in 1987, also in Colorado
Springs sponsored by the ANA. I based this ranking on my intuition
as a medal dealer at the time.

"How would each medal appeal to an American medal collector? I
analyzed every medal on display by many factors: design, innovation,
creativity, beauty, technical perfection, topical interest, theme
development and appropriate inscription. It took seven hours across
two days to do my inspections and ratings this time.

"So here are Dick Johnson's awards. A tie for Grand Prix. Only two
artists got two tens. I would give the Grand Prix to both Daniel
Taton of France and Magdalena Dobruccka of Poland. Taton did one
medal for the chosen theme of the Exhibition 'Passages To
Reconstruction' with the Twin Towers in flames, titled 'September
11, 2001.' The theme of the artist's other ten was the 'Concord,'
certainly a candidate for an aviation and space topic collector.

"For Madame Dobruccka's twin tens she choose Mozart and Rembrandt,
not only in artistic format but choose a universally popular topic,
music. Another of her creations, 'Kite'  was illustrated on the
cover of the 'Numismatist' September 2007 issue handed out to
everyone who registered to attend the exhibition. It contained my
article, 'Objects of Desire' illustrated with ten medals all shown
in the exhibition.

"Now for the nations that won the highest rank in the Olympics of
Medallic Art. The Gold goes to Italy (with a 6.47 average for 45
medals), the Silver to France (despite a low turnout, a 6.4 for
17 medals) -- no surprise for either of these nations -- both
long established in the art medal field.

"The surprise -- and this may be considered an upset -- the
Olympic Bronze goes to Canada (with a 6.1 for 46 medals)!

"The United States ranked below a mediocre average, 20th among 32
nations (4.4 for 65 medals). In conversation with a sculptor-painter
artist visiting from Santa Fe, he told me, "I wasn't going to say
anything, but is this the best we can do?"  U.S. medals earned:
six 0s, four 1s, five 2s, ten 3s, seven 4s, nine 5s, ten 6s, eight
7s, no 8s, five 9s, one 10. Total 286 points across 65 medals. I
gave a 10 to Jeanne Stephens-Sollman's 'ICFAD,' for the International
Council of Fine Art Deans -- a stunning milieu of themes --
literature, theater, painting, all the arts. Obviously a highly
artistic medal was required for an art organization.

"Last place in my accounting fell to Portugal. In a striking
contrast, Portugal had the greatest number of artists, 43, and
the greatest number of medals exhibited, 79. But this critic gave
this nation the lowest ranking of medal desirability of all nations,
2.49 (with only 189 points out of a possible 790). I felt this
country's art medallists are moving too far afield from traditional
or popular art medal desirability. These artists have every right
to do this but can be considered creating small sculptural objects
rather than reproducible medallic objects as struck or cast medals.

"Next week:  A report for E-Sylum readers on the FIDEM Exhibition
catalog."

 DICK JOHNSON REPORTS FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS FIDEM CONGRESS
 esylum_v10n38a09.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum