Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1891 - 1897

This letter by Adriaan Pit, part of the Rijksmuseum collection, invites us to examine the visual qualities of written communication as art. The pale parchment serves as a ground for Pit's looping script. The handwriting in faded ink creates a texture of strokes and curves across the rectangular page. The formal elements of line and space interplay to form words and sentences, yet the content blurs into an overall pattern, where legibility gives way to visual form. The varying thickness and pressure of the lines create a dynamic surface, energized by the artist's hand. We can consider this letter as a kind of abstract drawing, where the act of writing becomes a performative gesture, captured in ink. This challenges traditional notions of art by presenting an everyday form of communication as a site of aesthetic contemplation. The letter exists between the poles of language and image, destabilizing our expectations and revealing the inherent artistry within written expression.