The American Numismatic Society announced that Polish sculptor Hanna Antonina Jalonek is the recipient of the Society’s prestigious 2022 J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal.
A lifelong student of the arts, Jalonek studied at the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture at the State High School of Fine Arts in Wrocław before completing her BA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She graduated with honors in 1981 with a specialty in medallic art under the supervision of Prof. Zofia Demkowska.
In 1985–86, she held a scholarship from the Italian Government to continue her studies at the School of Medallic Art in Rome (Scuola dell’Arte Della Medaglia presso la Zecca Romana), receiving the Commendation of the School Council.
Since 1990, she has held several positions at her alma mater, the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, in the Department of Sculpture, beginning as an assistant in the Studio of Medals and Small Sculpture Forms, run by Prof. Piotr Gawron. In 1998, she received her PhD in Fine Arts from the Academy, habilitated in 2005, and became a full professor in 2020. From 2012 to 2019, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Sculpture, and, since 2004, has been running the Medallic Art Workshop.
Aside from her academic and educational accomplishments, Jalonek is a prolific sculptor and medallic artist and has participated in many exhibitions and national and international competitions. Her works are in the collections of, among others, the Medal Art Museum in Wrocław, the Copper Museum in Legnica, the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw, and the British Museum. Her awards include, among many others, the 2018 British Art Medal Society’s Struck Medal Award.
Saltus Committee chair Alan Stahl noted that “the Saltus Committee singled out Hanna Jelonek from of a strong field of contemporary medalists for her ability to explore such modern techniques in medallic art as the use of negative space and multiple materials while at the same time showing herself a master of the classic elements of psychological portraiture and the expert use of lettering to complement the sculptured images.”
An award ceremony is planned to take place at the ANS headquarters in New York City on Thursday, October 5, 2023. More information on the event will be provided closer to the date.
The award was created with a grant to the American Numismatic Society by J. Sanford Saltus in 1913 to recognize and encourage excellence in the art of the medal. The first Saltus Award was presented in 1919; the silver award medal was designed by the prominent German-born numismatic and architectural sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman.
Jalonek joins the ranks of other significant artists who have been awarded the medal including, among dozens of others, James Earl Frazer (1919), Victor D. Brenner (1922), Paul Manship (1925), Lee Lawrie (1937), Donald DeLue (1967), Kauko Räsänen (1986), João Duarte (2011), and two other Polish recipients, Ewa Olszewska-Borys (1993), and Pawel Leski (2014).
The 2020 Saltus Award was awarded to Anna Franziska Schwarzbach.
Here you can find a list of all winners of the Saltus Award.
For further information, visit the ANS website.
