User:Otakar Dušek/sandbox

Otakar Dušek (* September 25, 1974, Most, Czech Republic) is a Czech medallic artist, graphic designer, documentarist, and teacher.

Biography
Otakar Dušek from Osek, Czech Republic. Between 1988 and 1992, he attended the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Prague, continuing his studies at the Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts from 1992 to 1996. Since 1994, he has been a freelance graphic designer. Between 1997 and 2003, he was studying the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague, namely the Studio of Type and Graphic Design led by Professor Jan Solpera. He concluded his studies by receiving a prize Studio of Type and Graphic Design. Since 1998, he has been deep into medal design and he has been awarded a number of Czech and international prizes for his creations. In 2016 and 2017, he was a member of the international jury awarding the Jaap van der Veen/Teylers Museum Prize for the Contemporary Art Medal). Since 1994, he has been teaching at the Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts and other similarly oriented schools of art. In addition to graphic and medal design, he is also engaged in public space realizations.

Studies

 * 1988 – 1990 Secondary School of Fine Arts in Prague, (Furniture design)
 * 1990 – 1992 Secondary School of Fine Arts in Prague, (Scenography)
 * 1992 – 1994 Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts in Prague, (Illustrations and book design)
 * 1994 – 1996 Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts in Prague, (Promotion and advertising design work)
 * 1997 – 2003 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, (Studio of Type and Graphic Design under professor Jan Solpera)

Medal design
Between 1998 and 2000, Otakar Dušek was a regular participant in competitions of the Czech National Bank for designs of Czech commemorative medals. He is the author of two such commemorative medals of the Czech Republic. He terminated the cooperation with the Czech National Bank because of disputes concerning the concept of modern coin design. In the same year, he issued, as his private venture, his first commemorative silver medal marking the 700th anniversary of the commencement of minting of the Prague Groschen, which had initially been designed as a commemorative coin with a face value of 200 Czech Korunas and whose design the Czech National Bank had rejected as undoable. In 2001, he was awarded the first place prize at the International Coin Design Competition, Osaka, Japan, as well as the Future Designer prize for a design of Czech circulating commemoratives. In 2002, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, he undertook his second private venture, the minting of a commemorative “Stalingrad” shot-through silver medal, for which he received the prize for creative struck medal and / or technically innovative medal awarded to him at the FIDEM International Art Medal Federation in Seixal, Portugal, in 2004. He is the only Czech to have received the prize so far. In 2004, a “Pavel Ernest” commemorative silver medal with a clockwork motif and an “AquaServis” commemorative medal with a builder´s level motif are designed and produced; a year later, Dušek designs a commemorative medal of Václav Havel with the president´s thumbprint and signature; and in 2008 a “Kursk 1943” commemorative medal struck by a T-34 main battle tank, plus others. Dušek´s medals bring a new concept of medallic art, both in terms of inventiveness and in terms of technologies used to produce the medals. Dušek further develops the themes of his medals in etui designs supplemented with photographs or videos documenting the project´s realization. In 2012, Dušek´s unconventional work was awarded by the Jaap van der Veen / Teylers Museum Prize for the Contemporary Art Medal in Haarlem, the Netherlands. In 2015, Juliana Boublíková-Jahnová, the Czech delegate in FIDEM, groundlessly forbade Otakar Dušek to represent the Czech Republic at all future congresses of the International Art Medal Federation. He thus could not register his Jan Palach commemorative medal for the FIDEM international competition in Gent, Belgium, in 2016. At the end of the day, however, he was present in Gent as one of the five members of the international jury selecting the laureate of the Jaap van der Veen / Teylers Museum Prize for the Contemporary Art Medal. In 2017, Kateřina Nora Nováková, Ph.D., succeeded Juliana Boublíková-Jahnová as the Czech delegate in FIDEM, and Dušek´s ban to present his work at FIDEM events was lifted. A year later, in 2018, Dušek received the Mel Wacks Judaica Art Medal Award for his Todesmarch medal project at the 35th FIDEM Congress in Ottawa, Canada. In 2019, the project also received the Ben and Sylvia Odesser Memorial Award bestowed upon it by the Token and Medal Society and the American Israel Numismatic Association during the American Numismatic Association Convention on August 14, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Teaching and lecturing
Since 1994 a teacher of graphic design, computer graphics and type design at the Václav Hollar School of Fine Arts. In the same year, he opened a computer graphic course for the public there, which he led until 2018.


 * In 2004 and 2005, he led courses of graphic design at the Central European Advertising Art Institute in Prague.
 * Between 2005 and 2011, he was teaching graphic design at the Secondary Vocational School of Art and Advertising in Prague.
 * Between 2006 and 2009, he was lecturing on the type and graphic design in architecture at the Czech Technical University.
 * September 21, 2007 – a lecture on “Reflections: Artistic Freedom in the Czech Republic” at the FIDEM International Congress in Colorado Springs, CO, USA.
 * November 12, 2009 – a lecture on “Zehn Jahre der Unabhängigkeit und der schöpferischen Freiheit”, Residenzschloss, Dresden, Germany
 * May 31, 2018 – a lecture on “Todesmarsch” at the FIDEM International Congress organized by the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada

Awards

 * 2019 The Ben and Sylvia Odesser Memorial Award — Chicago, Illinois, USA
 * 2018 Mel Wacks Judaica Art Medal Award – FIDEM 2018 — Ottawa, Canada
 * 2015 Best documentary – Digitalmation Awards / May 2015 – Online Digital and Media Festival
 * 2014 Prix Jury – International Festival of Arts & Film, Telč, Czech Republic
 * 2012 Jaap van der Veen / Teylers Museum Prize for the Contemporary Art Medal — Haarlem, Netherlands
 * 2009 First prize in the competition “Medal of the Year” — Award of the journal Mince & Bankovky (Coins and Banknotes), Czech Republic
 * 2006 Second prize in a competition for architectonic design of a public space, Prague, Czech Republic
 * 2004 Prize for creative struck medal and / or technically innovative medal — International Art Medal Federation Congress FIDEM 2004 — Seixal, Portugal
 * 2003 Award of the Graphic Department of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Czech Republic
 * 2001 First prize „Future Designer”— The International Coin Design Competition — Ósaka, Japan
 * 2000 First prize of the Czech National Bank, Czech Republic
 * 1999 First prize of the Czech National Bank, Czech Republic
 * Second prize of the Czech National Bank, Czech Republic
 * Third prize of the Czech National Bank, Czech Republic
 * 1998 Award of Czech Association of Art Medal Makers
 * Award of the Czech Mint, Czech Republic
 * First prize of the Czech National Bank, Czech Republic

Representation in public collections

 * British Museum, London, Great Britain
 * Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
 * The Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm, Sweden
 * University Museum of Bergen, Norway
 * National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
 * Muzeum východních Čech (Museum of Eastern Bohemia), Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Representation in private collections
Many private collections at home and abroad
 * Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic in the years 1989 – 2003
 * Bill Clinton, President of the United States of America in the years 1993 – 2001
 * His Holiness the Dalai Lama
 * His Highness Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia

Participation in exhibitions

 * 2018 International Art Medal Federation Congress FIDEM. 2018, Ottawa, Canada
 * 2014 Znad Dunaju, Wełtawy i Wisły. 2014, Wrocław, Poland
 * 2010 International Art Medal Federation Congress FIDEM 2010, Tampere, Finland
 * VI International Biennial of Contemporary Medal, Seixal, Portugal
 * Decorations of Václav Havel – Tribute to Democracy, National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
 * 2009 Czech Gold, Municipal House, Prague, Czech Republic
 * 2007 International Art Medal Federation Congress FIDEM 2007, Colorado Springs, USA
 * 2005 IV International Biennial of Contemporary Medal, Seixal, Portugal
 * 2004 International Art Medal Federation Congress FIDEM 2004, Seixal, Portugal

Membership in professional associations

 * Since 2017 International Art Medal Federation - FIDEM
 * 1993 – 2014 Czech Association of Art Medal Makers