Verschillende voorstellingen c. 1828 - 1913

Editor: So, here we have “Verschillende voorstellingen,” or "Various Presentations," a lithograph print by Erve Wijsmuller, dating roughly between 1828 and 1913. There are all these miniature scenes…almost like panels from a very odd comic strip. The one with the cheetah leaping is amazing! How do you interpret this work? Curator: Ah, yes, Wijsmuller… a fascinating puzzle box of fleeting moments. It's like a collection of stray thoughts, caught and pinned down. See how the scenes dance around the central image of the panther? It suggests primal energy barely contained, and each panel offers a different escape valve for that energy. Editor: Escape valve? Like, comedic relief? Some of these are definitely a little silly. Curator: Perhaps. Or maybe each vignette explores a different facet of human folly. Look at the dandy, puffing away with utter seriousness. Does he know how ridiculous he looks? The cheetah, it doesn’t have that problem, it knows who and what it is. Which world do you find more “true?” Editor: I suppose, when you put it that way, maybe neither one! They both seem like reflections, or even caricatures of real life. The cheetah's wild, and that guy with the pipe, a cartoon… of someone? I still have to sit with the idea that, by looking at the whole picture, I may be closer to the whole truth! Curator: Exactly! Sometimes the truth is less about the single clear image and more about the crazy quilt of perspectives surrounding it. The sum is always greater, or in this case, wilder.