Brief aan Willem Bogtman Possibly 1923

This letter to Willem Bogtman was written in 1923 by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst. It’s made with ink on paper, and it's the kind of piece that whispers rather than shouts. I love the intimacy of handwriting, don’t you? The way each letter leans and loops tells a story beyond the words themselves. Look at the way the ink pools and thins, creating a rhythm that feels almost musical. It’s like Holst is thinking out loud, the pen dancing across the page in a kind of improvisational performance. There’s a vulnerability here, a sense of immediacy that gets lost in more polished forms of communication. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbled paintings, where the act of writing becomes a form of drawing. Both invite us to slow down, to trace the artist’s thoughts as they unfold. Art isn't about answers, it’s about the questions we ask along the way.