Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1913

This letter was penned to Philip Zilcken by François de Bas, and even though it lacks a specific date, the postal stamp indicates it was made in 1913. The fluid script gives you a sense of the writing process. Note the dance of the pen across the page, the loops and swirls. It reminds me of how abstract expressionists use line and gesture, not to describe, but to embody an idea, an energy, or a feeling. Look closely at the seal, how the crown sits atop the lion rampant, a bold mark rendered in what looks like violet ink. This particular area, with its superimposition of image and text, embodies the letters function as a historical document, but it is also a kind of collage, where the bureaucratic and the personal intersect, raising interesting questions about the nature of the archive, what is recorded, and what is left out. I'm thinking about Kurt Schwitters, and his collages made from found materials – everyday detritus transformed into works of art. Art is always in conversation with what came before, it's a dialogue across time.