ROB SCHOLTE, De Angst!, 2004
22,3 x 22,3 cm (18,3 x 18,3)
jigsaw puzzle, glued on cardboard as issued
signed, dated
edition unknown
condition: splendid
very rare
inv.RSch 000-pr

It is not clear whether the image is a cartoon, as almost all medieval etchings show the Dutch-Belgian lion looking to the right. The lion on Rob Scholte’s puzzle looks to the left with the shield mirrored, engraved with “Erich Wichman”. The names of the towns and rivers on the map stayed readable. Is the lion’s gaze pointing back towards an opposite direction?

Erich Wichmann joined the Amsterdam city council in 1921 as co-founder with his Rapaille Party ‘Had-je-me-maar’. The puzzle is above all a tribute to contrariness in general and not so much to Wichmann’s sympathies for fascism at the end of his life. He was a Dutch artist, eccentric, anti-parliamentary troublemaker and anti-bourgeois writer. His paintings (on display in, among others, the Centraal Museum, Utrecht) are not without merit as such.

“Begin jaren 90 heeft Scholte De Angst! als jigsaw-puzzle doen uitgeven, waarvan dit een exemplaar is. De oplage is onbekend, maar de uitgave is uiterst zeldzaam. Door Scholte achterop getiteld, gedateerd (2004) en gesigneerd. Ref. De Angst ! text in Dutch; Rob Scholte Museum, Den Helder, Netherlands

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