Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1917

This letter was written to Jan Veth in Amsterdam, October 12th, 1917, by someone using a fountain pen. The script loops and curls, with a dark, confident ink that seems so sure of itself. I love how the letter fills the page, crowding it, making it almost a drawing in itself. Look at the way the words vary in weight, like the pressure on the nib of the pen changed with the writer’s mood. You can imagine the hand moving across the page, pressing harder here, lighter there, the words spilling out in a rush. It’s like a dance, the pen a partner following the writer's thoughts. There’s a smudge in the corner, a little coffee stain down at the bottom, signs of life that bring the writer closer. I’m reminded of Cy Twombly’s scrawling, poetic gestures, also using handwriting as a form of mark making and storytelling. It suggests art is always a conversation, a dialogue, a back-and-forth between people and ideas, ink and paper.