Goetz: St. Martin by Guido Goetz

cacheman

"754" St. Martin, 1948, Guido Goetz, 92.5mm, Cast AE, AU.

Child-like in design and execution, Guido Goetz's work and artistic abilities fell far short from those of his father.

Below, you see the medal entitled "Saint Martin" made by Guido in 1948. This medal alludes to the state of the German culture shortly after WWII. The obverse shows St. Martin on a horse preparing to share his cloak with a beggar. Guido's name is in the exergue. The reverse has the archaic mask mourning for the suffering of music, painting, and sculpture. Inscription along edge is a quote by Goethe:"...Let mankind be noble,gentle, and good..."



To my limited knowledge regarding Guido, it appears that he leaned heavily upon his father's success. It is a known fact that in the early 80's Guido began restriking and recasting his father's previous work from old hubs and models. For all intents and purposes, this is normally not an applauded act, particularly by the Goetz collectors who created their collections based on actual KG pieces and their prices.

Guido also appears to have taken some pieces designed and created in collaboration with his father and placed his name on them with no mention of his father. They worked closely together in the mid to late '40's after Karl had his stroke.

As I research and collect further pieces of Guido (in attempts to create a "fuller" Goetz collection) I should begin seeing more of the man and his inner works. For instance, this piece has an incuse edge-punch, a practice his father did with a few examples of each medal design as he finished them. This Guido Goetz edge-punch is actually the same one that his father used but where the "K" of "KGoeTz" has been changed on the tempered metal punch (poorly I might add) to a "G"!!! Could this have been done out of a sense of family pride and traditon, or as I suspect, an act of laziness lacking in creativity? Had it been I, I would have had some sense of ownership and pride in the the creation of the piece and taken the time to design my own "mark."

To add insult to injury, it became a common practice to number Guido's works with a Kienast number. This is something Gunter Kienast and I have talked about recently; there was never any intent to include Guido's works with his father's at any time. Someone began numbering Guido's works with "Opus" numbers after the completion of Volume I "The Medals of Karl Goetz" was completed. When Kienast wrote the second volume identifying many additonal Karl Goetz medals a duplication of "Opus" numbers occured. It will be my intention, through publication somewhere, to call for Guido Goetz's work to be numbered using a "GG" designation e.g., GG1, GG2, etc. by all collectors.

Enough from me for now.....

boz

So how would you distinguish a Guido re-cast from a goetz original?

cacheman

Guido made a deal with the Japanese to make electro-plated copies. I no longer have an image of one since my computer crashed but electro-plated copies have metallic "spittle" all over their surface. This is the first indicator, the second is patina...if it has a funny looking patina then you are looking at a copy. Of course, not all recasts are the Japanese offshoots and you have to go by your experience in actually handling Goetz stuff. I would know by holding the piece in my hand that the metal content is wrong or the rim doesn't look right, etc... For the most part, the well done recast pieces have been absorbed into the market and its just a matter of knowing what you are handling.

Actually, if done well from the original hub or model, who's to care, right? For me though, I prefer to have something that was actually handled by Karl himself.

boz

<< <i> prefer to have something that was actually handled by Karl himself >>

lordmarcovan

With a name like Guido Goetz, he probably got picked on by schoolyard bullies a lot!

oldshep

Very interesting - what was Guido's age at the time of the piece shown?
Shep

cosmicdebris

Sounds like Guido had an identity chrisis.

cacheman

Guido was 36 years old when he made this piece.

Cosmic, the opinions expressed here are purely my own although I know of many that feel his restriking and recasting may have been on the side of unethical. His father was known to recast pieces when an order came in requesting such, but that is a far cry from him casting someone else's work.

cosmicdebris

Most coins and medals struck are rarely done by the artist that made the original dies or whatever was used to create the piece in the first place.

But with Karl Goetz this is not the case which would of coarse make pieces he alone created that much more special. That being the case I can see how this would make some people feel.

Askari

I agree your revised Kienast ought to have a different designation for Guido's work. Moreover, his work should be included because he is part of the Goetz story. This is actually one of Guido's better pieces. Interestingly, a clue that a work is Guido's rather than his father's is that Guido renders his peoples' hand closer to scale.