Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1901 - 1919

This is a postcard to Philip Zilcken by Jan Toorop, made with ink on paper. It has a limited color palette, just black and shades of green, but look closer and you will find a whole range of marks. I am drawn to the circular post mark on the left of the postcard, a kind of portal to the past. The way it overlaps the address, blurring the lines, makes it feel like a secret code. Each mark, each stamp, adds to the texture of the piece, not only visually but also conceptually. Toorop was a Dutch-Indonesian painter, who explored symbolism and the theosophical movement, a philosophy that searches for spiritual insight. You can see some similarities with Hilma af Klint, an artist whose process of artmaking involves the use of symbols and unconventional approaches. Art is an ongoing conversation, and this postcard is part of that exchange. It reminds us that art is about embracing ambiguity.