by: Camila Schaulson Frenz
Correction: In “AIANY Celebrates Design Excellence at the 2013 Honors and Awards Luncheon,” featured in e-Oculus issue 04.18.13, Medal of Honor designer João Duarte was mistakenly identified as a Brazilian sculptor, medallist, and professor.
Born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1952, João Duarte is one of Portugal’s foremost sculptors and medallists. Duarte graduated with a degree in plastic arts and sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon in 1978, where he is now an Associate Professor. In addition to his distinguished teaching career, he has designed 47 public monuments, more than 150 medals, and 12 commemorative coins for the Portuguese Mint.
Duarte has participated in countless individual and group exhibitions of sculpture and medals, and is represented in medallic art collections at the Portuguese Mint, the Rijksmuseum Het Koninklijke Penningkabinet in Leiden, the Department of Numismatics at Princeton University, the Medallic Sculpture Studio at the National Art Academy of Sofia, and the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum.
His achievements were celebrated in 2010 with an exhibition at the Portuguese Mint entitled “João Duarte: Retrospectiva 30 Anos de Medalha e Moeda.” In 2011, the American Numismatic Society presented him with the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Art of the Medal, the most recent of many awards and prizes he has received over the years.
Duarte is a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts, the International Art Medal Federation, and Charter Member and Director of Volte Face – Contemporary Medals, a group dedicated to distinguishing contemporary medallic sculpture from the traditional format of medal art.
We apologize for misrepresenting an artist who has played a critical role in the development of the numismatic art in his country. The article has been amended to include Duarte’s correct nationality.