Prentbiefkaart aan A. van der Boom Possibly 1931 - 1936

This postcard was written in 1931 by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, and just looking at the handwriting you get a sense of the person behind it. The way the ink bleeds into the paper shows you that, like any artistic process, even sending a simple correspondence is a messy, beautiful thing. I love how the practical and personal collide here: the mundane act of sending a postcard elevated by the artist’s touch. The handwriting, with its quirks and imperfections, becomes a form of expression in itself. Holst isn't trying to hide the process; it's all there on the surface. The stamp placement, the Amsterdam postmark, the smudges – they all tell a story. It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s scribbled paintings, or maybe some early Joseph Beuys postcards. These are artists who understood that art wasn't just about the finished product, but about the traces and the conversations along the way. Art is an ongoing dialogue, a back-and-forth between the artist, the materials, and the world.