Brief aan Mien Cambier van Nooten Possibly 1940 - 1941

Curator: So, what strikes you about Dick Ket's "Brief aan Mien Cambier van Nooten" from around 1940-1941, this intimate ink drawing with pen on paper? Editor: Well, it's incredibly dense, isn’t it? It feels like a glimpse into someone's private thoughts. I'm intrigued by how a personal letter becomes a piece worthy of display at the Rijksmuseum. What do you see in it? Curator: Absolutely. It transcends the mundane, doesn’t it? Consider Ket, often confined by illness. This letter, perhaps never actually sent, becomes a vessel for connection, for projecting his interior world onto the page. It’s not just a letter, it’s a portrait of a mind. It’s that very density you pointed out that invites us into his stream of consciousness. Editor: A portrait of a mind... That’s beautifully put. It's almost overwhelming with its stream of thoughts and little scribbles on the sides. Why include the photographic element though? What do you think its meaning may have been? Curator: That touch of photography! Doesn’t it deepen the feeling of lived reality intersecting with subjective perception? It hints at the real-world anchors amidst his mental wanderings and amplifies this constant push and pull between interior and exterior life. The actual photographs themselves remain unidentified. Editor: Interesting. I never considered it as anything more than a document at face value but you helped see how many different facets such a work possesses, so thank you. Curator: And thank you for teasing them out. Isn't it fascinating how a simple letter can become such a rich tapestry of the self?