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SOM#113, Marika Somogyi, Vanitas, 1986
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From the collection of John Birks
Numbers Issued: 750 Bronze
FROM THE ARTIST
A mirror contains an image, yet it does not. What is on the other side? This can be a very childish or a profound question.
This mysterious property of a mirror always fascinated me as it has for countless artists, thinkers and mystics throughout the ages. A mirror became a powerful symbol in the hands of Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau and others.
I found the form of the medal, with its two sides, to be an ideal medium for exploring this theme, "What is on the other side?"
A mirror cries out for a beautiful woman. John Milton in Paradise Lost wrote, “In naked beauty more adorn'd, more lovely, then Pandora.” In sculpting the naked woman admiring herself in a mirror, I created the ultimate representation of vanity, one of the seven deadly sins of the medieval world. Accordingly, on the other side of the medal, peering through the looking glass, waits the devil. - Marika Somogyi, 1986
The Sculpture of MARIKA SOMOGYI by Joseph Veach Noble, Executive Director of The Society of Medalists
This is a medal of great beauty and artistry. It is also a mystical medal with a meaning that transcends mere form and reality. Marika Somogyi has created a morality play in metal, and the interaction between the beautiful woman and the devil becomes an unfinished story. How will it end?
William Shakespeare wrote on the same theme in Anthony and Cleopatra, "A Woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not."
Marika Somogyi is an extraordinarily talented sculptor who suffered under the Nazis and later Soviet oppression before escaping from her native Hungary in 1956. She has a daring and innovative approach to medals which is exemplified by her triple medal tribute to Bach, Handel and Scarlatti on their tri-centennial. Actually there are three separate triangular medals that join together to form a pyramid. One of her most successful medals commemorates Raol Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from execution by the Nazis during World War II. A current medal, of great personal meaning to her, shows the head of the Statue of Liberty as seen from the viewpoint of an immigrant passing on a ship.
A sensitive and sensuous person, she feels that "Medals should be touched and held. I believe the medal has a future, that we will come more and more to have smaller things to treasure."
A highly selective stream of medals flows from her studio in Berkeley, California. Her work has been exhibited in the two most recent world congresses of the Federation Internationale de la Medaille in Florence, Italy, and Stockholm, Sweden, as well as in the American Medallic Sculpture Association exhibition in New York.
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![SOM#113, Marika Somogyi, Vanitas, 1986
[b]From the collection of John Birks[/b]
[i]Numbers Issued: 750 Bronze[/i]
[b]FROM THE ARTIST[/b]
A mirror contains an image, yet it does not. What is on the other side? This can be a very childish or a profound question.
This mysterious property of a mirror always fascinated me as it has for countless artists, thinkers and mystics throughout the ages. A mirror became a powerful symbol in the hands of Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau and others.
I found the form of the medal, with its two sides, to be an ideal medium for exploring this theme, "What is on the other side?"
A mirror cries out for a beautiful woman. John Milton in [i]Paradise Lost[/i] wrote, “In naked beauty more adorn'd, more lovely, then Pandora.” In sculpting the naked woman admiring herself in a mirror, I created the ultimate representation of vanity, one of the seven deadly sins of the medieval world. Accordingly, on the other side of the medal, peering through the looking glass, waits the devil. - Marika Somogyi, 1986
[b]The Sculpture of MARIKA SOMOGYI by Joseph Veach Noble, Executive Director of The Society of Medalists[/b]
This is a medal of great beauty and artistry. It is also a mystical medal with a meaning that transcends mere form and reality. Marika Somogyi has created a morality play in metal, and the interaction between the beautiful woman and the devil becomes an unfinished story. How will it end?
William Shakespeare wrote on the same theme in [i]Anthony and Cleopatra[/i], "A Woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not."
Marika Somogyi is an extraordinarily talented sculptor who suffered under the Nazis and later Soviet oppression before escaping from her native Hungary in 1956. She has a daring and innovative approach to medals which is exemplified by her triple medal tribute to Bach, Handel and Scarlatti on their tri-centennial. Actually there are three separate triangular medals that join together to form a pyramid. One of her most successful medals commemorates Raol Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from execution by the Nazis during World War II. A current medal, of great personal meaning to her, shows the head of the Statue of Liberty as seen from the viewpoint of an immigrant passing on a ship.
A sensitive and sensuous person, she feels that "Medals should be touched and held. I believe the medal has a future, that we will come more and more to have smaller things to treasure."
A highly selective stream of medals flows from her studio in Berkeley, California. Her work has been exhibited in the two most recent world congresses of the Federation Internationale de la Medaille in Florence, Italy, and Stockholm, Sweden, as well as in the American Medallic Sculpture Association exhibition in New York.
Keywords: sold](albums/userpics/10001/SOM%23113-combo-blue.jpg "SOM#113, Marika Somogyi, Vanitas, 1986
[b]From the collection of John Birks[/b]
[i]Numbers Issued: 750 Bronze[/i]
[b]FROM THE ARTIST[/b]
A mirror contains an image, yet it does not. What is on the other side? This can be a very childish or a profound question.
This mysterious property of a mirror always fascinated me as it has for countless artists, thinkers and mystics throughout the ages. A mirror became a powerful symbol in the hands of Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau and others.
I found the form of the medal, with its two sides, to be an ideal medium for exploring this theme, \"What is on the other side?\"
A mirror cries out for a beautiful woman. John Milton in [i]Paradise Lost[/i] wrote, “In naked beauty more adorn'd, more lovely, then Pandora.” In sculpting the naked woman admiring herself in a mirror, I created the ultimate representation of vanity, one of the seven deadly sins of the medieval world. Accordingly, on the other side of the medal, peering through the looking glass, waits the devil. - Marika Somogyi, 1986
[b]The Sculpture of MARIKA SOMOGYI by Joseph Veach Noble, Executive Director of The Society of Medalists[/b]
This is a medal of great beauty and artistry. It is also a mystical medal with a meaning that transcends mere form and reality. Marika Somogyi has created a morality play in metal, and the interaction between the beautiful woman and the devil becomes an unfinished story. How will it end?
William Shakespeare wrote on the same theme in [i]Anthony and Cleopatra[/i], \"A Woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not.\"
Marika Somogyi is an extraordinarily talented sculptor who suffered under the Nazis and later Soviet oppression before escaping from her native Hungary in 1956. She has a daring and innovative approach to medals which is exemplified by her triple medal tribute to Bach, Handel and Scarlatti on their tri-centennial. Actually there are three separate triangular medals that join together to form a pyramid. One of her most successful medals commemorates Raol Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from execution by the Nazis during World War II. A current medal, of great personal meaning to her, shows the head of the Statue of Liberty as seen from the viewpoint of an immigrant passing on a ship.
A sensitive and sensuous person, she feels that \"Medals should be touched and held. I believe the medal has a future, that we will come more and more to have smaller things to treasure.\"
A highly selective stream of medals flows from her studio in Berkeley, California. Her work has been exhibited in the two most recent world congresses of the Federation Internationale de la Medaille in Florence, Italy, and Stockholm, Sweden, as well as in the American Medallic Sculpture Association exhibition in New York.
Keywords: sold")
