Brief aan Philip Zilcken before 1925

Gustave Kahn made this letter to Philip Zilcken with ink on paper, and what I see here is not just a message, but a performance. The way the blue ink bleeds slightly into the page, it's like Kahn's thoughts are still settling, still wet. Look at the sweep of the letters, the way they lean forward, eager to communicate. Each word is a gesture, a quick, confident stroke that speaks to the urgency and intimacy of a handwritten note. It makes me think of Cy Twombly’s scribbled paintings, where the act of writing becomes a kind of abstract expression. There's a rawness here, an immediacy that you just don't get with typed words. It's like we're getting a direct line to Kahn’s state of mind. This letter is an artifact, a trace of a moment in time, a conversation across years. It reminds us that art is not just about grand statements, but about the small, everyday gestures that connect us to each other and to the world.