Medals of Dishonour
29 September 2012 - 13 January 2013
The Menshikov Palace

On 28 September 2012, the Medals of Dishonour exhibition was opened at the Menshikov Palace, which has been prepared by the State Hermitage Museum and the British Museum with support from Metabolic Studio, Los Angeles. The British Museum's Medals of Dishonour exhibition was held in London in 2009 and has been expanded with additional items from the State Hermitage Museum collection – presenting a new version of the exhibition.

The exhibition includes about 150 items displaying the artwork of medals of a particular genre, little known to the broader public – medals that portrait a negative view of historical events.

Arising during the Italian Renaissance and quickly spreading through Europe, medallic art was used to glorify the merits and achievements of the powerful and leading personalities. Thanks to the ability to produce large numbers of these items, medals became an effective way of informing the public about events that had taken place: military victories and changes in government; it was also a means of propaganda for new ideas, being an original approach to mass communication for that period. This function for medals served as the forerunner for the appearance of satirical medals, casting aspersions on the achievements of others, and critiquing social and religious ideas. A bright example of this were the humorous, anti-papal medals distributed in Germany during the Reformation, and later imitated with similar medal with depictions of Cromwell and the frenetic Fairfax as the devil.

Gerard van Bylaer produced the medal commemorating the defeat of the invincible Spanish Armada in 1588, dedicating it not to the victors of the battle but to the vanquished. An unknown medal maker used repugnant details to mock the policies of Louis XIV in Algeria.

The events of the 19th century were reflected in the works of Englishman Thomas Halliday in 1842, dedicated to the hot topic of the day – the return of income tax, and in the work of the unknown French medal worker who in 1850 cast a medal for the return of Bonapartism.

A critical view of the past Napoleon Empire is reflected in the medals of Fe'licien Rops with his Medal for Waterloo – a parody of the Médaille de Sainte-Hélène, established by Napoleon III which was awarded to several hundred thousand participants of the Napoleonic Wars in various countries. On the obverse side of the Rops’ medal is a gaunt, one legged veteran wearing a Napoleonic three-cornered hat, leaning on a crutch. The medal is accompanied with an ironic inscription, "The last of the Chauvins – all that remains of him."

The medals of the 20th century provide particularly rich material for the chosen subject. Death and destruction which come with war are brought to life in the bleak images of the medals of 1915–1918, the work of Ludwig Gies, Karl Goetz, and also Arnold Zadikov, in whose work the image of Death takes the central place.

The American sculptor David Smith created a series of medals during his trip through Europe in 1935–1936 called Medals of Dishonour, in which he criticised war and the political system responsible for it. The name of the current exhibition was derived from this series.

Items produced in recent years are particularly interesting and reflect the problems of our contemporary world. Medals on the subject of dishonour have been commissioned on the initiative of one of the exhibition authors – an artist and medal maker Felicity Powell, the British Art Medal Trust, a charitable organisation that encourages the study and development of medallic art. The majority of these medals are not dedicated to a specific event but are philosophical generalisations for thinking about a given theme.

The reduced emotional pathos for discussing the realities of the contemporary world and taking them to a humorous degree is brightly seen in the medal by Grayson Perry For Faith in Shopping (2008), ridiculing consumer society. The exhibition will also present work by Felicity Powell. Among the medal makers represented at the exhibition are those of Russian artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakovs (2007).

Mona Hatoum’s medal 2008 is dedicated to the problem of global terrorism. On a circle of metal shaped like a grenade and inscribed with lines of latitude and longitude, the shapes of the Earth’s continents are seen. Beneath is an inscription in Arabic script, which translates as Made in the United States.
Furthermore, the exhibition also presents various illustrated material.

As a whole the exhibition gives an interesting overview of this particular branch of medallic art over the course of five centuries, examining its appearance as an unconventional point of view, sometimes directly opposing the purpose of medals as an official, historical document.

The State Hermitage Museum's exhibition curator is Ekaterina Vitalyevna Lepekhina, Deputy Head of the State Hermitage Museum's Numismatics Department.