NUMISMATICS: the ART of COINS and MEDALS ABRAM BELSKIE
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ABRAM BELSKIE NUMISMATICS: THE ART of COINS AND MEDALS at New York Medical College The Belskie Museum is which he held for many years. indebted to have D. Wayne His medical associations led him Johnson, Curator, Numismatic to other sculpture commissions Art, scholar and author, such as The Surgeon, 1962 for catalogue the numismatic Ethicon Building in Somerville, work of Abram Belskie. This N.J. as well as Portrait of Dr. brochure has been written as Robert Dickinson for N.Y. an Introductory Primer on Academy of Science and General Numismatic Art featuring Robert Wood Johnson at Johnson the art of Abram Belskie. & Johnson Laboratories. As a A complete catalogue listing is available upon request. numismatic sculptor he has been praised and honored for D. Wayne Johnson is known as editor and creator of Coin World which he his fifty medal series “Great started in 1960, editor of The Art Medalist for Medallic Art Company Men of Medicine” issued and contributing writer to two internet by Presidential Art Medals, Inc. sites: www.amsamedals.org www.medalcollectors.org The artist best describes his numismatic work as follows: “I like it because it combines both art and science. I don’t think, really, there’s any barrier between ABRAM BELSKIE them. If the combination was (1907-1988) good enough for Leonardo da Vinci, it’s good enough for me.” As an artist and sculptor he was able to combine two disparate disciplines – art and medicine – in which he won acclaim in both From 1952 until 1984 he worlds. In the field of medicine he is re-nowned as a medical designed over 130 medals sculptor for his life-size scientifically correct anatomical models. and medallions which is He worked with Dr. Robert L. Dickinson on the Birth Series, at the focus of this publication New York Medical College and his Heart Series for American Heart and exhibition, Numismatics: Association. His work in this field earned him a Faculty position The Art of Coins & Medals. the wording and image to the very bit at a time – called pellets – then shaped minimum. He does this by making the with special tools. One, called a wire tool, How Abram Belskie image almost a symbol. looks like a wire loop on the end of a pencil. Another is made of wood, a boaster, Made Medals Consider a coin in your pocket. It is made the used for shaping and smoothing the clay. By D. Wayne Johnson same way as a medal, with themes, images, He would have the basic relief formed, lettering and made from a model. A typical Curator, Numismatic Art, Belskie Museum then he would add the lettering. coin is from a half-inch to an inch-and-one- half, from a dime to silver-dollar size. Medals can be any size, but on average, they are one Casting in plaster of Paris. and-one-half to three inches. These are very Once he was satisfied the design was perfect, small areas for the artist’s design. The complete in every way, he would make a artist’s theme must be expressed in a very plaster cast of the clay model. First he would small size. But the artist has an advantage. coat the clay with a release agent to allow the He works oversize, and the mint or medal cast to be removed after it hardened. He would maker reduces his design to the smaller size build a fence around the clay with a metal intended for a coin or medal. strip, supporting it in a way where the plaster There is tremendous advantage in working would not seep out. oversize because the design is reduced for Plaster of Paris is a white powder. It is mixed final production. Facial features and hands, with water, slowly, not to allow air bubbles in Medals are used in many ways, to celebrate an anniversary, to for example, can be more lifelike. Clothing the mixture. Then he would pour a small can be shown with folds much more record some famous person or event, to collect for the sheer amount over the coated clay, slowly, again realistically. Detail adds realism to just not to allow air bubbles on the surface. enjoyment of their beauty! More often, however, medals are created about every part of the image shown on the medal. Ideally the artist wants to ‘Touching up’ is last step. as an award; for example, the Nobel Prize Medal, the Pulitzer Medal design a single theme, make a simple The plaster hardens in an hour or two. The or Olympic medals. In addition to being a life-long sculptor, Abram image – called a device on a coin or medal – but adds as much detail as he plaster cast can then be lifted off carefully. Belskie was also a medalist – a person who creates medals. He was can to make it appear real. But to make sure it is completely hard, it is 39 years old before he started making medals and creating the often put in an oven and baked. models from which medals were made. Medals are like any other Artist interpretation is most important. Casting changes polarity. The positive clay becomes a negative cast. At this stage the The artist must add his interpretation – of art work. They are created by artists who develop an idea in their artist “touches up” the negative plaster. He the person, or the scene, or the image. He sharpens up the lettering or deepens some mind, to become the theme of the medal. can simplify his subject, or strengthen it, or area to emphasize the design. emphasize some element. He must make Medal ideas are first sketched. relief for medals is a special kind, called two designs, each related to the other to Then he coats the plaster cast, again with because it has a flat back. Even emphasize each other, for the two sides. a release agent, and makes a cast from this Like any medal artist, Abram could draw bas-relief negative. This will be a positive, and is what in two ways – on paper as a drawing though a medal has relief on two sides, it sketches he sends off to the mint or medal maker. – or since he is a sculptor he could sketch is made from two flat-back models. The Modeling for a medal. front is called the the back the The manufacturer will reduce it on a in clay – the material he works with most obverse, Abram made pencil sketches as the first step The artist must create a separate pantograph and cuts the dies. The dies are of all. Sketching in clay gives the artist reverse. in his medal designs. Next he would work in model for each side. used to strike the coin or medal in metal, greater freedom but is more involved. clay. He would add clay to a background bronze or silver. For quick sketches Abram drew on paper, Medals have two elements on each side – plate, a smooth disk of plaster slightly larger but in his mind the lines indicated an the pictorial elements and the lettering. So than the size of the model. Next he would outline of relief. If a sculptor creates a the artist must think of lettering in addition prepare the design by modeling. statue he thinks in three dimensions. But it to what he wants to show as the images on He models by adding clay or carving it is said a medalist thinks in two-and-one- each side. There is not very much room for away creating modulated relief, the rise half dimensions, and that is half-joke. The either element, so the artist must reduce and fall of the design. Clay is added a tiny Mary Queen of Scots ,1973 Societe Commemorative de Femmes Celebres series (FM SCS-43) - G - - H - Silver & Striking, Struck - obverse Silver - reverse Brookgreen Gardens - A - - B - th Sketch & Theme - pencil drawing Background Plate & Working Model 50 Anniversary Medal, 1931-1981 1981, bronze, 3” diameter, Medallic Art Company (MAco 78-163), Belskie Museum of Art 1993-123 - C - - D - Observe - negative relief Reverse - positive relief Frederick Douglass Medal, 1969 from the American Negro Commemorative Society Series, silver 1.5” in diameter, Franklin Mint; Belskie Museum of Art, NJ 1993.114 Abram Belskie in his studio, Closter, New Jersey with models for the 1981 Bookgreen Gardens medal - E - - F - - I - - J - Modulated Relief with clay pellets, Device & Sketch - initial pencil Silver & Striking, Struck - obverse Silver & Striking, Struck - reverse Border, Lettering for obverse drawing for reverse Loop. Relief. A ring-shaped attachment to a medal The three-dimensional surface that is so it may be hung from a ribbon, chain the design raising from the base, or such to be worn. background or field; the design is said to be in Modulated Relief. Medal. A metallic piece, of historic, Reverse. commemorative, or artistic design, The back side of a coin or medal. made – by casting or striking – originally Series. in the shape similar to a coin (but without An issue of a number of numismatic or denomination and certainly not intended medallic items with a common theme to pass for money). or design and a continuity of issue. Medallion. Sketch. A large medal, round or nearly so; A two-dimensional drawing or three- 3 3/16-inch (80mm) or larger. The Language of Medal Making dimensional relief prepared by the artist A-Z Model, Modeling. to assist in the designing of a numismatic or medallic item. Medallists speak a language all their own. As with any field it has The permanent form and preparing the three-dimension relief of a new medal special terms and names for processes, techniques, tools and results.