Brief aan Richard Roland Holst Possibly 1923

This is a letter, "Brief aan Richard Roland Holst," by Willem Bogtman, and it’s dated March 15, 1923. It's typewritten on what looks like aged paper. I can almost smell that musty, archival scent. What I find striking is the act of communicating across time. Bogtman is writing to Holst, probably about a shared artistic or intellectual concern. I imagine them both, heads bent over desks, grappling with ideas, trying to make sense of the world through their work. It feels like a passing of thoughts between two contemporaries. The letter itself, with its formal tone and specific details – mentions of costs and execution – it’s a direct, almost blunt communication. Yet, as an artist, I see this as a kind of artifact, a record of creative exchange. It’s how artists build on each other's ideas, challenge each other, and keep the conversation going, even across generations. Just like we’re doing now.