Brief aan Philip Zilcken before 1917

This is a note, "Brief aan Philip Zilcken", a letter written in ink on paper, by Joseph Romieu. Look at that ink, pooling and drying, sinking into the fibers. The marks are so direct. Handwriting always feels so vulnerable, it’s like seeing someone's thoughts before they've had a chance to put on a performance. The marks are so earnest, the opposite of casual. I like the way the lines have a wavering quality as they cross the page. It reminds me of Cy Twombly. With Twombly, there's this feeling of endless searching, like the mark-making is a way of figuring things out as you go along. Romieu gives me a similar feeling of following a mind in motion. The letter offers an invitation to visit an atelier, a simple proposition that still carries the weight of human connection. Art is so often about that reaching out, that conversation across time and space. Even something as simple as a handwritten note can hold so much.