Briefkaart aan Anna Dorothea Dirks Possibly 1927

This postcard to Anna Dorothea Dirks, its date unknown, comes to us from the hand of Johan Huizinga and looks like it was written with a fountain pen. The hand-written script, with its looping ascenders and descenders, really animates the surface. The ink itself seems to have a life of its own. Look at how the postal markings are arranged. A stamp in the upper right, then some circular marks in the top center and upper left. A rectangle encloses the number ‘D 627’, perhaps a tracking code of some kind. These various marks remind me that art making is often as much about control as it is about letting go, about facilitating and allowing for the unexpected to happen. The marks here are more like notations, reminders of daily life, not unlike the work of Cy Twombly, who made paintings that resembled graffiti or casual scribbles, or even like the address books of On Kawara, a conceptual artist who documented his life through simple, repetitive actions. Each of these artists reminds us that art doesn’t always have to be grand or imposing; it can be intimate, personal, and even a little bit messy.