Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1903 - 1911

Max Rooses made this letter to Philip Zilcken in Antwerp on November 11, 1903, and what strikes me is the delicate dance between precision and fluidity in the penmanship. The way the ink bleeds ever so slightly into the paper gives a sense of time, a gentle aging that lends a certain warmth. Look closely at the drawing at the top of the page. There’s an openness, even in the detailed architectural rendering. The lines aren’t overly labored, but rather, they possess a breezy, informal quality, as if sketched on the go. It reminds me of some of David Hockney’s sketchbook work, that same freedom of expression, where the act of seeing and recording becomes a kind of meditation. This piece also reminds me of Cy Twombly's work, where writing becomes drawing and drawing becomes writing, a fluid exchange between the legible and the illegible. Art isn’t so much about answers as it is about questions, and about embracing the beauty of not knowing.