Driehonderdjarig herdenking van de oprichting van het Athenaeum Illustre te Amsterdam 1932 1932

Bertus Sondaar's commemorative coin of 1932, marks three centuries since Amsterdam's Athenaeum Illustre was founded. Imagine Sondaar, bent over his work, carefully incising these tiny emblems and dates. Each groove and curve, painstakingly carved, speaks to a history, a place. The design shows the architecture framed by trees. I see those stylized trees on either side, echoing each other, as if in conversation, or maybe even an argument. The patina of the metal invites touch, doesn't it? It's like a portal, isn't it? He's building a connection between past and present, doesn't it? Thinking about academic institutions makes me think of how art itself becomes a form of knowledge-making, how the artist’s studio functions like a laboratory. Sondaar's coin whispers to us across time: what will you do with knowledge? What will you make?