Notities 1900 - 1903

This page of handwritten notes was composed by Antoon Derkinderen at an unknown date. The looping and slanted marks in dark ink are full of poetic observations. I can imagine the artist taking their pen and, in a moment of pause, reflecting on the meanings of words. The script almost seems to be dancing across the page. It is easy to imagine Derkinderen’s hand at work, moving instinctively to capture a train of thought. The ink is absorbed into the fibres of the page, preserving the artist's passing thoughts. I wonder about the act of writing as a form of mark-making. What does it mean to translate something into words and arrange them in a composition? I think about Cy Twombly and other artists who play with gestural writing in their art. Artists are always in conversation with each other, their creative processes are overlapping and mutually inspiring. Painting, like writing, is a form of expression that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.