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The exhibition "Cabinet of Medals and Coins"

On January 21, 2021, the exhibition "Cabinet of Medals and Coins" was opened in the Art Museum of Kirovohrad Regional Council. This became possible with the support of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation (grant program "Culture in times of crisis: institutional support", the purchase of modern exhibition equipment in particular.

The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation is a state institution established in 2017 as a new model of providing state support and promotion of initiatives in the field of culture and creative industries on a competitive basis. The activity of the Fund, in accordance with the current legislation, is an integral part of the policy and identified priorities of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Thus, the hoped-for dream of a larger presentation of unique examples of medal art came to realization. It was arranged in order to promote highly professional talent and a wide range of thematic masters of medalists and a visual demonstration of the museum of a wide profile, which fully corresponds to its new name.

And yet, this is  a good reason to remember once again with a kind word and to honor the bright memory of a sincere friend of our museum and restless enthusiast Victor Petrakov. He got the original idea to create Coin Room in former Regional Art museum. Guided by the principle "Not by word but by deed", he made a significant personal contribution to the implementation of this project, donating 144 coins and medals to the museum's stock collection.

One of the tasks of the presented exhibition, among other things, is an intensification of people's curiosity to a very interesting history of medal art. For example, it is known that the first coins appeared in the states of Lydia and Greece between the VIII and VII centuries BC, and the medal art of Ancient Greece was then at the level of the best achievements of other plastic arts. But the very word "coin" did not originate in Greece, and in ancient Rome. It is significant that the masters who made them were called "sculptors of coins", although the Romans themselves, who despised any work, entrusted this task exclusively to slaves. Subsequent turbulent events, the collapse of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern, barbaric wars and the painful formation of new European states caused a crisis of medal art, which received a new breath only during the Italian Renaissance. As you know, memorial medals were not typical of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Money coins were used for memorial purposes those days.

Only in the fourteenth century, and in Italy, began to make medals in honor of a ruler or a significant event. The practice of widespread use of coats of arms, allegories, mottos, inscriptions, portraits, ornaments, images of animals, fish, birds with the indication of the year of manufacture and using the latter for gold, silver, copper and their alloys. There were isolated products made of wood and bone, but there were very few of them. It was much later, in the twentieth century, the need for cheap materials for medal business forced craftsmen to resort to the use of ceramics, porcelain, leather, plastics and more. Like all other arts, medals were absorbed at the time stylistics.

Early portraits on medals almost completely copy Italian portraits made with oil paints in the early Renaissance. An eloquent indicator of the insane popularity of medal art in Italy is at least the fact that coins and medals have often become collectibles. They were bought, sold, stored, proud of. Cabinets - personal belongings where various jewels, in particular - coins and medals were stored, became widespread. Having been revived in Italy, the art of medal making extends to the whole of Western Europe, having in each country its own specifics and features and reflecting certain historical events. For example, German masters widely used religious subjects, created medals on political themes and medals-caricatures. Werewolf medals appeared in Germany during the Restoration, with a portrait of the Pope on one side, but it was worth turning it over and the devil was looking at the man. During its development, the art of medal making has risen and fallen, but even in its worst times it remained a unique mirror of the era, becoming an invaluable source for studying the history of Western Europe, Byzantium, Kyiv Rus, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, Ukraine and other countries.

The fact that in 1937, in order to popularize the art of medalmaking and support sculptors and masters of the medal, in Paris, the directors of the seven largest mints in Europe established the International Federation of Medallion Art (FIDEM), around which later bankers, sculptors, museum workers, patrons, and fans of medal art from 44 countries of the world united. Every 2 years the federation holds congresses and international exhibitions of medal art. Since the end of the twentieth century, masters of independent Ukraine have been taking part in the work of FIDEM.

Today, the museum's stock collection contains more than 600 items (457 coins, 95 medals and 67 models of medals), which was largely the result of fruitful cooperation with Kyiv, Sumy, Odessa, Kharkiv, custom service and others.

116 of them are presented at the exhibition "Cabinet of Medals and Coins", which introduces visitors to prominent figures of science, culture, military, political elite and reflect individual historical events and even - entire eras, thus making a fascinating journey in space and time. In addition, it presents works of unique masters, including, what is very importantly - works of our compatriots.

Among the latter is the Honored Artist of Ukraine Vyacheslav Popov, who under any circumstances remains true to his life credo: "Do everything with love." The master's creative output includes more than two hundred medals in various thematic areas: a portrait gallery of prominent personalities - Taras Shevchenko, Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Vasyl Stus, Ivan Honchar, Vasyl Sukhomlynsky, Andriy Sheptytsky, Mother Teresa and other significant historical events - the liberation war led by

Bohdan Khmelnytsky of 1648-1657, the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, the Chornobyl tragedy of 1986, etc. Vyacheslav Popov’s works are in museums in Kyiv and St. Petersburg, in Chyhyryn, Cherkasy, Georgia, Holland, France and Germany, as well as in numerous private collections.

Medal works of our compatriot, artist, sculptor, carver, medalist, writer, poet, art critic Andrei Vasilyevich Nimenko (1925-2006) also admire and amaze visitors. In his creative work, which is even difficult to list, we can highlight the monuments to Lesya Ukrainka in Lutsk (1977), Mykhailo Pavlyk in Kosovo in Ivano-Frankivsk region, David Guramishvili in Myrhorod in Poltava region (1969), the sculpture "Shota Rustaveli" (1966) and Alisher Navo (1968), sculptural portraits of Yuriy Yanovsky, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Ostap Vyshnya, Hryhoriy Tyutyunnyk, Pavel Zagrebelny, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, memorial plaques, in particular to Yuriy Yanovsky in Kyiv and Taras Shevchenko in Zhytomyr, bas-reliefs and memorial complexes at the Kyiv Metro station.

Andriy Vasyliovych was one of the first in Ukraine to revive the forgotten art of minting copper, brass and other metals, and the status of a highly professional medalist and a true patriot of his country is emphasized by the theme of his bronze medals "Vladimir Vynnychenko", "In a free, new family", "Ostap Cherry "," There is a high mountain… "," 40th anniversary of Kyiv liberation ", plaster models of medals" Monument to Lesya Ukrainka in Lutsk "," Roksolana "," Bohdan Khmelnytsky "," Ivan Sirko "," Petro Doroshenko "," Ivan Pidkova "," Ivan Mazepa "," Mykhailo Hrushevsky ”,“ Simon Petliura ”,“ Pavlo Tychyna ”,“ Ivan Mykolaychuk ”and others. Part of the exposition consists of art literature, in particular - on the history of numismatics, and that is dedicated to the personalities presented at the exhibition. So I hope that the Arts Museum will implement the idea of creation of Cabinet of Medals and Coins. It will arouse great interest in the community and will be an important step in the promotion of medal art and the historical events and prominent personalities reflected in their works.

 

Oleg Yurchenko - Head of Tourism and Local lore and Information work Department.

Kropyvnytskyi Art Museum