Frank Letterie - 1984 penning "De Bot / Gunter Grass" Vereniging van Penningkunst. - Sold

The Bot / Gunter Grass
Frank Letterie had been given a free assignment and he chose a book that was close to his heart: Der Butt by the German author Gunter Grass. The hot is an ancient, talking and omniscient fish. The fisherman who puts him back in the sea at the beginning of the story will receive immortality as a thank you and the flounder will guide him through the ages as a mentor. Letterie writes in his article in De Beeldenaar about the impossibility of even somewhat summarizing the story, fairy tale or myth of 700 pages in baroque narrative style. The obverse depicts the thick, suspicious head of Gunter Grass with his drooping moustache, in a symbiotic relationship with the bot that whispers advice to him. On the reverse, a man and a woman are depicted, attentively and lovingly contemplating a child. They are surrounded by a hedge of pumpkin leaves, a form of gazebo popular in northern Germany. Letterie had started out as an outspoken modeller, as can be seen in his 1965 De Keyserpenning; but he developed a new technique for this association medal. The Bot is not modeled but cut from a slice of dried clay. This explains the broad surfaces of the figuration. It is the great merit of Letterie that, through his conception and presentation, he makes the viewer curious about a book he is not familiar with. Memorizing is the oldest function of a token, and making curious is part of that.