Brief aan Mien Cambier van Nooten Possibly 1940 - 1945

This is Dick Ket’s ‘Brief aan Mien Cambier van Nooten’ made sometime before his death in 1940. It's writing, but like a drawing. Look at the intense, looping, and looping again of the pen, the scratching of the nib on the page – it's as if he's physically building his thoughts, layering them on top of each other, crossing them out, and then going back in again. I can imagine Ket hunched over his desk, wrestling with the words, trying to capture the elusive essence of his thoughts. He is like other artists of his generation, trying to be both modern and classical at once. It must have been claustrophobic, working in his parents' house all the time, knowing he was going to die young from his heart condition. Yet he's also part of a long line of artists who use writing as a way to think, to plan, to remember. Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Klee, Cy Twombly, all used handwriting in paintings, and Ket is carrying on that tradition. He's in conversation with all of them, across time, inspiring me to pick up my own pen and join the dance.