Kurt Bodlak

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Kurt Bodlak (born April 10, 1924 in Vienna ; † October 28, 2017 in Kirchberg am Wechsel ) was an Austrian engraver and medalist .

Life

His father was a freelance engraver and introduced his son to the art of engraving at an early age. In 1938 he passed the entrance examination to the arts and crafts school and was graduated there in 1948. After graduating, he set up his own workshop for metal and small sculptures. In response to an advertisement, he applied to the Vienna Central Mint and was able to start working as an engraver there on September 2, 1957. At that time it was still common practice at the main mint to hold design competitions for new coins, in which freelance artists could participate in addition to the in-house designers. At the intervention of Edwin Grienauer , Kurt Bodlak was soon invited and won with his design for the 50 shilling coin "Johann Strauss - Donauwalzer". His 500 Schilling coin "2000 Years of the City of Bregenz" was named "Coin of The Year" in 1985 in the USA as "Most Historically Significant Coin".

On July 1st, 1977 Kurt Bodlak took over the management of the engraving department and toolmaking in the main mint. In 1982 he was appointed professor. In 1984 he retired as an official director. But even after that he was still often active as a designer for the mint.

plant

50 Schilling coin of the Republic of Austria for the 350th anniversary of the University of Salzburg in 1972, designed by Kurt Bodlak
500 Schilling, 1986, St. Florian Monastery
Value side of the 20 schilling coins from 1982

In total, he was involved in the design of 32 Austrian Schilling coins until 2001. So he designed u. a. the value side of the 20 Schilling coins, which has been in use since 1982, the coat of arms of the 10 Schilling coins minted from 1974 to 2001 in copper-nickel and a number of Austrian special coins of 25, 50, 100 and 500 Schilling. In addition, he also created a number of medals on various topics and occasions.

Prizes and awards

  • 1948 State Prize from the Academy for Applied Arts in Vienna
  • 1985 election of his 500 schilling coin "2000 years of the city of Bregenz" as "Coin of The Year"
  • 1982 Awarded the title of professor

literature

  • Kurt Bodlak - professor . In: Communications of the Austrian Numismatic Society , 22 (1982), p. 91
  • Karl Schulz: Kurt Bodlak - 60 years old . In: Communications from the Austrian Numismatic Society , 24 (1984), p. 100
  • Karl Schulz: The medal production of the Austrian main mint , in several volumes of the communications of the Austrian Numismatic Society ,
  • Lothar Hölbling: Medals of Science. The collection of the archive of the University of Vienna . (Vienna 1998).
  • Ferdinand Dahl: Catalog for the exhibition Kunstmedals - Medaillenkunst , Part 3 (= Der Steckenreiter. Ancillary hours dedicated to the pleasure of coins. A coin post from the Numismatic Society of Bonner Münzfreunde eV , Volume 93). Numismatic Society Bonner Münzfreunde, Bonn 2014, pp. 16–19 (with numerous illustrations); PDF .

Web links

Commons : Kurt Bodlak  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. † Kurt Bodlak. Retrieved November 12, 2017 (German).