Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1916 - 1928

This letter, from C.C. Delprat to Jan Veth, was made with ink on paper, probably in Amsterdam, in 1916. The pressure of the nib creates these wonderfully thick and thin lines, forming the script. It reminds me that artmaking is a temporal process, and we can see here the record of a person’s concentration over time. Look at the texture of the writing, how the dark ink sits on the page. There’s a tension between the stark black of the ink and the creamy paper. The letters almost float. Notice how the artist allows the ink to pool in certain areas, creating a tactile quality. It's easy to imagine Delprat carefully forming each letter, almost like a meditative act. The slant and loops of the characters seem to suggest an intense focus and determination, like Robert Walser maybe. It has that quality of art as conversation, always folding one voice into another. And what is communicated is never fixed, always open.