Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1909

This is "Brief aan Philip Zilcken" by Gustave Bourcard, and it looks like it was made with ink on paper. It's a letter, and you can tell that Bourcard was really letting his thoughts flow onto the page. There's a raw, immediate quality to the way he's formed each word. The ink isn’t fussy. It is what it is. The marks swell and contract depending on the pressure he applied. It’s kind of like when I'm painting and I just let the brush do its thing, not trying to control every single detail, but embracing the accidents and surprises that happen along the way. Check out that signature at the bottom, the way it swoops and loops. It’s almost like a little drawing in itself. When I look at this, I'm also reminded of Cy Twombly, you know, with his scribbly, poetic marks that feel both ancient and totally modern. And like Twombly, Bourcard reminds us that art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas across time, full of delightful ambiguities and endless possibilities.