Cathy's Art Diary

Strangely interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at the role of emigrants to Britain in designing medals both in the Renaissance and Second World War periods. I must admit even I approached this small display with trepidation but the commentary made it really interesting and there were some lovely pieces on show as well as great quotes from the artists about what it was like to live in England and from the English about the emigrants. One of the earliest medalists in Britain was Jacopo de Trezzo who arrived with the court of Philip II of Spain. There were some fine Renaissance pieces. As interesting was the section on artists who arrived in Britain as refugees of the Nazi’s in the 1930s. I loved the work of Fritz Kormis who produced medals of Churchill and Laurence Olivier. Also Paul Vincze’s piece showing cupid as an air raid warden as well as his retirement medals for retirees from the museum’s own coins department. My favourite piece was the one in t

Confusing exhibition at the British Museum looking at the medals of Louise XIV, described as the greatest medallic project ever. I say confusing as it took me quite a while to work out what the project was. I do wonder if I went round backwards but there was no signage to say where to start! By the end I worked out that there was a deliberate move to commemorate all events in the kings reign with a medal with a committee called the Little Academy set up to oversee this. In 1702 all the medals were published in a book. I sometimes found it had to tell what had been in this canon as there also seemed to be displays on anti-monarch medals which I assume weren’t official. The show just needed a bit more narrative as I must admit I came out of the small room wondering why this was important and with no sense of the design or purpose of the objects. Closed   15 November2015. Review Telegraph

Surprisingly interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at commutative medals made in Germany in World War I. Yes it sounds dull doesn’t it but I found a fantastic collection of early German expressionist art! Whereas in England the anger at the war seemed to come out through the poetry in German they made medals. There was a heavy use of death images and whole section at the end talking about the history of the German use of the Dance of Death and how it was picked up in the war. There was Death selling tickets to the passengers on the Lusitania, Death manipulating Zeppelins, despondent soldiers being led to death, Death pumping blood from a battle field etc.In some of the images Death was a metaphor for the allied armies but in other it was just death! My favourite piece was a medal showing Zeppelin’s over Tower Bridge. This never happened but evidently it was rumoured to have done in Germany. Reviews Telegraph