Brief aan jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout (1879-1969) Possibly 1931

Here's a letter Hans van Voorthuijsen wrote to jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout on December 24th, 1931, and well, it's a beautiful object in itself, isn't it? Just look at the range of pressure in his handwriting, especially the bold emphasis in the heading. You can see the hand moving across the page, bearing down on the downstrokes and gliding lightly on the upstrokes. It's like a dance, a performance of thought. The red ink, correcting or emphasizing the name, it adds a layer of depth, almost like a painter adding a highlight. You can see this kind of energy in the work of Cy Twombly, the way the physical act of writing becomes the art itself. It makes you think about how art is always talking to art, across time and through different forms. There's no one way to see it, only a conversation.