Scholte, Rob
| Name |
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| Birthname | Robert Egbert Gerardus Scholte | ||||
| born on | 1 June 1958 at 08:05 (= 08:05 AM ) | ||||
| Place | Amsterdam, Netherlands, 52n22, 4e54 | ||||
| Timezone | MET h1e (is standard time) | ||||
| Data source |
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| Astrology data |   10°17'   02°32 Asc. 27°35'
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Biography
Dutch contemporary artist and art professor, who lost both legs in a bomb attack.
From 1977 to 1982, he studied painting and audiovisual art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Until 1993, he had a studio called The Living Room where he exhibited for the first time in 1984. He also became an art teacher in Amsterdam (Rietveld Akademie, the Sandberg Institute) and at the Royal art academy of Copenhagen. From 1993 to 1998 he was art professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, from 1999 to 2001 at the Artesis Hogeschool in Antwerp.
Part of his work consists of reproductions of images from the media and from art history. For this reason he has been accused of plagiarism. Like Warhol's pop-art, Scholte used common motifs like pin-up girls, but put them in another context. This remaking of old themes became his trademark.
When art critic Bas Roodnat published the article "Het schilderij Utopia van Rob Scholte, nieuw gebruik of nabootsing?"(NRC-Handelsblad, 3 December 1987), he copied the article and presented it as a new work of art called Nostalgia. Actually his Utopia (1986) was a remake of Manet's Olympia from 1863, that referred back to the Venus of Urbino by Italian master Titian (1538), which was based on Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510).
His work has been shown in São Paulo Art Biennial (1985), Documenta, Kassel (1987), Aperto, Venice (1988), Boijmans Van Beuningen (1988), Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1989), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1990), Venice Biennale (1990), Kunsthaus Hamburg (1991), Museum Van Bommel-Van Dam, Venlo (1992) Grey Art Gallery, New York (1993),Sprengel Museum, Hannover (1994), Paleis Huis ten Bosch, Nagasaki (1995), Fries Museum (2000), Groninger Museum (2002), Galerie Witteveen Amsterdam (2004, 2005, 2006), and Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2005).
His and Peter Klashorst's wild nightlife, full of alcohol, dope and women inspired his friend Joost Zwagerman to write the novel Gimmick! (1989).
In 1991 he met the model and photographer Mirjam "Mickey" Hoogendijk (born 8 July 1970, Amsterdam). She became the manager of Rob Scholte BV. Mickey fell pregnant, but after 9 months the child was stillborn. On 31 May 1994, they married in Amsterdam.
On 24 November 1994, Ron and Mickey went to the doctor, to check if Mickey was pregnant. She was, but at 08:50 AM the BMW Rob drove was blown up by a hand grenade under the car. Rob lost both his legs and Mickey had an abortion. Rob survived thanks to bystanders who stopped his heavy arterial bleeding by putting coins in his arteries. Rob had surgery and his legs needed to be amputated. Bodyguards ware in the hospital to prevent a second attack.
The case has never been solved. Being commercially very successful and critically acclaimed, Scholte was envied by many of his contemporaries. Even after his horrible fate, some evil voices suggested the assault was a p.r. stunt. Others speculated that he was involved in a connection between the cocaine sniffing Amsterdam art world and the criminal world, involving drugs and money laundering. Supposedly, succesfull artists like Scholte might pay for their cocaine with their artworks.
But most likely, the assault was a settlement in the criminal circuit not meant for Scholte, as his boisterous BMW 525i was also popular with criminals and even their white collar lawyers. Another well known BMW owner, the lawyer Oscar Hammerstein (born 20 February 1954, Rotterdam) said to the police that he was threatened a day before. After the assault, Scholte relocated to Tenerife. He could not stay in Amsterdam. On 15 March 2003 he returned to Holland.
Rob Scholte is the father of Lotus Mason (born in 2001, Tenerife) and a girl from his relationship with Lijsje Snijder whom he married in 2006.
Relationships
- friend relationship with Zwagerman, Joost (born 18 November 1963). Notes: Writer of "Gimmick!"
Events
- Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 27 May 1990 in Venice (decorating the Dutch studio at the Venice Biennale)
chart Placidus Equal_H.
- Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released November 1995 in Nagasaki (The project "Après Nous le Deluge")
chart Placidus Equal_H.
- Social : Great Publicity 14 April 1998 ("The Scholte affair" TV documentary)
chart Placidus Equal_H.
Source Notes
Schepel quotes municipal archive (Act 11-71) in Sterrentijd 61 of 1 May 1995.
Categories
- Diagnoses : Body Part Problems : Accident/Injury (Lost both legs after an assault)
- Diagnoses : Psychological : Abuse Drugs
- Lifestyle : Social Life : Party animal
- Vocation : Art : Commercial artist
- Vocation : Art : Fine art artist