Wilde dieren 1903 - 1919

This is 'Wilde Dieren' a lithograph print by Arie Willem Segboer, printed with Erik & Binger. It looks like something made with a lot of care and attention, but in a really loose way. The colours are muted earth tones, and they are divided into square and circular compartments. I notice that they're arranged in a way that's both kind of natural and really artificial, like some bizarre collage. I am thinking about the making of an image like this, the layers and marks, the lithographic process. The images have an animal, and then the habitat as the ground. Look at how the lion is set in a grassy surround, you can almost feel the cool, slick surface of the paper. It’s flat but textured, like a memory. It reminds me of the playful but deliberate world of Philip Guston, who also saw the potential for narrative and meaning in everyday images. Art is a language of exchange, and it’s exciting to see how artists like Segboer contribute to that conversation. Ultimately, this piece invites us to embrace ambiguity and find our own meanings within its open-ended composition.