Brief aan Philip Zilcken before 1923

Léonce Bénédite wrote "Brief aan Philip Zilcken" in pen or ink, and it's such a beautiful example of how writing can be art, too. Look at how the script flows across the page. The loops and lines have an almost abstract quality when you step back. It’s like watching someone think – each stroke a gesture, a feeling, laid bare. The ink density varies, creating a rhythm, a kind of visual music. It's like the artist is dancing with the pen, letting the words spill out in a rush. The way the letters connect and disconnect, the little flourishes, it reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, or even some of the automatic drawings of the Surrealists. I like that, you know, the idea of art as an unedited expression, where the process is as important as the outcome. It challenges the idea of fixed meaning and invites us to find our own sense in the marks.