Wereldtentoonstelling te Luik 1905 1905

This coin, designed by Alphonse Michaux, commemorates the World Fair held in Liège in 1905. Imagine the artisan carefully carving away at the metal, chasing the design, trying to get the light to catch just so. Look at the figure on one side, standing tall, classical, and holding what looks like a flower. On the other side, there's a seated figure, maybe representing industry or progress, with what looks like factory chimneys in the background. What was Michaux thinking? Did he labor over every detail, carefully honing each line? Or did the image emerge more spontaneously, guided by intuition and the feel of the metal in his hands? The coin connects us to a specific moment in time and also makes us think about how artists are in an ongoing conversation, constantly borrowing, responding to, and reinterpreting the past. These kinds of objects embody a moment of time and history, but they also contain an ongoing story of image making and expression.