Conceptbrief aan Albert Messein c. 1930

This piece, Conceptbrief aan Albert Messein, is a handwritten note by Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak. The way the ink bleeds into the paper suggests an urgent process, a flow of thought captured in the moment. The blue ink against the cream-colored paper gives it a sense of intimacy, like a whisper across time. Looking at the script, you can see how the letters almost dance across the page, some heavy, others light, as if the pressure of the pen varied with the artist’s breath. The way the lines curve and intersect creates a visual rhythm, and this rhythm is almost musical. The ragged edge of the paper adds another layer, it reminds us of the fragility of communication, how easily words can be torn or lost. It makes me think of Cy Twombly's scribbled paintings, or even some of Basquiat’s text-based works, where the act of writing becomes a form of drawing, blurring the line between language and image. Ultimately, it’s about how we try to make sense of the world through marks, and how those marks can carry so much meaning.