Conceptbrief aan Jan Kalff Possibly 1907

This is Jan Veth’s ‘Conceptbrief aan Jan Kalff’. I imagine it came into being as a way for Veth to try out his thinking. I am immediately drawn to the intense scribbling, where the weight and rhythm communicate urgency and depth. The way the words run into each other seems like a kind of free writing, and the letterform is so personal, so expressive! It is a stream of consciousness, and I feel like I’m right there with him, watching his thoughts take shape on the page. As a painter, I totally get it. There's a real conversation happening here, and I'm reminded of Cy Twombly's scrawls, or even some of the wilder pages from Leonardo's notebooks. They are all just trying to figure something out! I appreciate the lack of pretense here. This is just one artist talking to another. I see this piece as part of an ongoing dialogue between artists across time, each building on and responding to those who came before. It's about embracing that uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings, and understanding that meaning is always fluid and evolving.