Briefkaart aan Jan Veth Possibly 1906

This is a postcard to Jan Veth, made with ink, and sent by Karel Johan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm. The script is so graceful, it makes me think about how we communicate with each other. There are these lovely dark and light areas, the contrast really makes the words jump out. I’m drawn to the word “Bussum” stamped at the top, it makes me think of how the artist was marking the paper with these deliberate stamps. And, the way the artist writes out the address, with all those elegant swirls, feels like a performance. It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s works, in how the gestures become the art itself. The materiality of the card, the paper, the ink, they all come together to tell a story, not just of a message sent, but of a moment in time, captured in the simple act of writing. It’s a conversation between two people, but it’s also a conversation between us and the past.