Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1923

This is a letter, made with ink on paper by Jeanne Erlich, sent on January 3, 1923. There’s a gorgeous tension in the way the controlled, elegant script hints at a deeper, more chaotic, and perhaps hidden, emotional landscape. The lines flow with a kind of disciplined grace, but here and there, the ink seems to pool a little, or the pressure of the pen varies, creating these tiny eruptions of texture. It's like she's following a formal structure but can’t quite contain the little tremors of her inner world. Look at the ‘J’ in Jeanne, it’s an elegant flourish, but has a weight to it. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s work, where the grid is this structure, but within it, each line is drawn with such a delicate, human touch that you feel the artist's presence. It’s a reminder that art, even in its most restrained forms, is always a conversation, a reaching out, a way of saying, "I am here."