Wilde dieren 1903 - 1919

This is 'Wilde Dieren', or Wild Animals, by Arie Willem Segboer. It’s a lithograph, so a print. The colour palette is mostly warm, inviting. I’m imagining Segboer arranging these animals – tiger, bear, zebra, walrus, cheetah – like they’re in conversation with each other. The cheetah on the bottom right, caged, reminds me of a similar creature in a Franz Marc painting from around the same time. They’re both expressing the animal’s wildness, but also the sadness of captivity. It’s like Segboer’s asking: what does it mean to be wild? What do these animals mean to us, the viewer? The marks that make up the stripes of the zebra, the spots of the cheetah, are very simple. They don’t give away too much, but instead open up the field of possibilities. There’s something so beautiful and strange about how artists across time make connections, almost as if they are talking to each other through their work.