Algemeen Handelsblad Possibly 1945

This is 'Algemeen Handelsblad', a newspaper made in 1945. I guess you could say that the 'mark-making' here is the overall layout and typography and it’s crazy to think of it as a kind of 'painting', but everything is a decision, right? What strikes me is the texture of the paper. You can almost feel the fragility, the thinness, the way it might crinkle or tear. The color is like faded tea – a muted, warm gray that speaks of age and history. I find myself focusing on one particular headline: "Geen macht ter wereld zal ons in het hart zwak maken" – "No power in the world will weaken us in our hearts". It's a bold statement, a defiant gesture against the backdrop of war, and you can feel that spirit in the very materiality of the object. There’s a connection to be made here with Kurt Schwitters, and his collages of found ephemera – an eye for the everyday, and how to re-present it. Newspapers like this are a reminder that art is always in conversation with the world, and that meaning is never fixed, but always shifting and evolving.