Gladys Smith Gunzer | |
---|---|
Born | North Wilkesboro, North Carolina | November 12, 1939
Died | June 13, 2016 76) | (aged
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Metallist, sculptor |
Spouse | Richard Sheridan Gunzer [1] |
Gladys Smith Gunzer (November 12, 1939 – June 13, 2016) was a noted American metallist and sculptor. She was the first woman chosen to design an official United States presidential inaugural medal. [2]
Gunzer was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1939. She studied fine arts at the Women's College of the University of North Carolina, but left in order to raise her family. She was hired by the Medallic Art Company in 1972 and worked there until 1990, working her way up to senior sculptor and manager of the firm's art department. [3] She then moved to Arizona and worked as a freelance medallic sculptor. [2]
Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian portrait sculptor, medal designer, and liturgical artist.
Selma Hortense Burke was an American sculptor and a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Burke is best known for a bas relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt which may have been the model for his image on the obverse of the dime. She described herself as "a people's sculptor" and created many pieces of public art, often portraits of prominent African-American figures like Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington. In 1979, she was awarded the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. She summed up her life as an artist, "I really live and move in the atmosphere in which I am creating".
The Society of Medalists was established in 1930 in the United States to encourage the medallic work of superior sculptors, and to make their creations available to the public. The Society of Medalists was the longest running art medal collector's organization in the United States and released 129 regular issues on a twice yearly basis from 1930 to 1995, as well as special issues marking the Society's 20th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries and the United States Bicentennial in 1976. Much of the inspiration for the Society came from the earlier Circle of Friends of the Medallion, which also issued medals on a semi-annual basis from 1908 to 1915. All issues of the Society were struck by the Medallic Art Company, originally located in New York City
Circle of Friends of the Medallion was formed by Charles DeKay, Robert Hewitt, Jr., and the French-American trio of Jules Edouard Roiné with brothers Felix and Henri Weil, all living in New York City. DeKay, "a newspaperman and art lover" provided the contacts to form the Circle of Friends of the Medallion, often referred to as the Circle of Friends, while Hewitt, "a Manhattan real estate investor" provided the funds for its development. Jules Edouard Roiné and Felix Weil ran the Roiné, Weil and Company (1908-1916) which they collaborated with Henri. Upon Roiné's passing in 1916, Felix and Henri Weil operated the Medallic Art Company of New York. The three men, via both companies, made the 1st, 2nd and 12th medals in the series. Joseph K. Davison & Sons of Philadelphia struck the other medals.
Medallic Art Company, Ltd. based in Dayton, Nevada was at one time "America's oldest and largest private mint" and specialized in making academic awards, maces, medallions, along with chains of office and universities medals for schools. After going bankrupt in 2018, the American Numismatic Society purchased their significant archive of art medals, dies, die shells, plaster casts, galvanos, photographic archives, and other important cultural material. The Society has launched an initiative, the MACO Project, to identify and publish this material to make it available to researchers.
Alex Shagin is a coin designer.
Eugene Daub is an American contemporary figure sculptor, best known for his portraits and figurative monument sculpture created in the classic heroic style. His sculptures reside in three of the nation's state capitals and in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. His work appears in public monuments and permanent collections in the United States and Europe.
Ralph J. Menconi was a prominent sculptor and medallist, who received many accolades during his lifetime. Among them were the Ellen P. Speyer award for original sculpture in 1941, the Freedom Foundation Award, the Michelangelo Award, the American Numismatic Association's Sculptor of the Year award in 1970, and the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1971. He also received an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1971. He became known as the "Sculptor of Presidents" because of the 36-medal series of the American presidents he created for Presidential Art Medals.
Donald Nelson Everhart II is an American coin and medal engraver-medalist, and sculptor who has worked for the private Franklin Mint, as a freelance designer, and since 2004 has worked for the United States Mint in Philadelphia. With over 1,000 models for coins and medals attributed to him as of 2008, he is still at the prime of his career creating the bas-relief models for these and similar sculptural objects. His coin designs are in the pockets of American citizens, and despite his late arrival to the series of the popular U.S. Statehood Quarters, he has designed and modeled three State's unique reverse designs, modeled three others, and six U.S. commemorative coins. His portrait of President William Clinton was chosen for Clinton's second term Inaugural Medal. Among his other medal creations are six Congressional Gold Medals for the U.S. Mint, seven Society of Medalists issues, twelve calendar medals, and other models for private medal makers, as well as cast art medals.
The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 to persons deserving of special recognition for extraordinary achievement to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1884. The medal was designed by sculptor Gladys Gunzer.
Gladys Caldwell Fisher was an American sculptor and animalier, born in Loveland, Colorado and based in Denver. Best known in Colorado, she was nationally recognized for her work.
Thomas Gaetano LoMedico was an American sculptor and medalist. Born and raised in New York City, his sculpture won awards in the 1930s and 1940s and is now in several American museum collections.
Cleo Hartwig was an American sculptor who worked in stone, wood, terra cotta, plaster, paper, woodcut, and ceramic. She won a number of awards, including national awards, and her work is exhibited across the northeast U.S. She is regarded as a member of The New York School.
Mabel Pugh (1891–1986) was an art teacher, painter, woodblock printmaker and illustrator.
Phebe Hemphill is an American sculptor who works for the United States Mint. She has been called "one of the preeminent coin artists, sculptors, and engravers of our time."
Gladys Nelson Smith was an American painter.
Margaret Christian Grigor was a prolific sculptor and medalist, working in metal, wood, stone, plaster and plasteline. Grigor was elected to the National Sculpture Society in 1963. In 1969 she won the Lindsey Morris Prize for best bas-relief from the National Sculpture Society.
Mico Kaufman was a sculptor. Born in Buzău, Romania in 1924, Kaufman was best known for making inaugural medals for United States Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. He survived a Nazi labor camp during World War 2 and in 1951 immigrated to the United States. He lived in Tewksbury, MA and died on December 12, 2016, at the age of 92.
Bruno Mankowski, was a German-born American sculptor, carver, ceramicist and medalist.
Thomas James Ferrell was an American engraver and medalist best known for his work for The Franklin Mint.