Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1918

This "Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken" by Herman Robbers is a postcard, a humble material, but it carries so much information. The stamps and handwriting, they're like brushstrokes, each one telling a story of transit and communication. I love how the smudged ink of the postmarks almost obscures the neat handwriting, this tension speaks to me of the messiness of life interfering with the order we try to impose on it. Look at the way Robbers carefully wrote his name and address, a small act of self-assertion against the backdrop of the churning postal system. The faded green ink of the stamps, a muted echo of officialdom. It reminds me of some of the work of Dieter Roth, who used the postal system as a medium for his art. Both artists embrace the ephemeral, the transient, and the everyday. This postcard isn't just a message, it's a tiny, portable artwork, carrying history and human connection across time and space. Art is always in conversation.