Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1928

This is ‘Brief aan Philip Zilcken’, a letter written by Arsène Alexandre. Just look at how he builds up the pressure with his pen, then releases it. See how the line varies between thick and thin, dark and light? It's like a dance. And the words! I can't read French, but that almost doesn't matter. The forms of the letters, they're like abstract shapes, each one leaning into the next. For me, the beauty of something like this lies in its intimacy. A quick note, a fleeting thought, jotted down and sent off. I feel like I’m catching a glimpse of a real person, in real-time. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbled paintings, where the act of writing becomes a kind of drawing, or vice versa. It’s a process, an event, not just a finished product. Art isn't about answers. It's about the questions we ask, and the marks we make along the way.