Gedichten aan Albert Neuhuys (1844-1914) Possibly 1904 - 1916

On this paper from 1904, various makers produced a poem for Albert Neuhuys. I'm drawn to the way the text is arranged on the page, like blocks of color in a painting. The poem itself is an ode, a celebration. I start thinking about the texture of the paper, its surface. You can imagine the ink soaking in, creating a slight relief. Look at the spaces between the words, the way the lines break. It's like a painter considering the negative space around a form. That space allows everything to breathe. Consider the phrase "Hoede God den grooten schilder," repeated like a chorus. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's looping script, a kind of meditative mark-making. Art's just one big conversation, across time and place.