Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1921

Dominique Durandy wrote this letter to Philip Zilcken in pen on paper on November 10, 1921. I love seeing the traces of someone's hand, don't you? Especially when, like here, you can sense the urgency and the everydayness of it all. The letter is full of this beautiful blue ink, the kind that bleeds ever so slightly into the paper, creating this soft halo around the words. Notice how Durandy’s handwriting is so expressive – some letters are tall and looping, others are squashed and hurried. Look at the way the ink pools in the downstrokes, creating darker, more intense blues, as if he was really pressing down on the pen. The flourishes and crossings-out give you a real sense of the moment, a snapshot of his thoughts in real-time. Durandy, writing, in his own way, reminds me of Cy Twombly, who also understood how a simple line could be so full of emotion and energy. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation.