Briefkaart aan Jan Veth Possibly 1919

This is a postcard, sometime in the past, by E.J. Tanning, and it's got more than just words on it. There are layers here. The whole thing is a conversation, and the layers of marks, addresses, stamps, and handwriting overlap and merge. It’s like a painting where the underlayers are allowed to peek through and become part of the final image. I see the marks of sending, receiving, reading. The postmark, in a purple-red, clashes a little with the pink lines, like a chord that resolves to a slightly different note than you expected. And then, that handwriting! Look at the loops and curls in the address. Each stroke tells a story. It’s an intimate gesture, a connection between the sender and the receiver. It's almost like Cy Twombly in the way that the writing becomes an abstracted field. This little piece is a reminder that art is everywhere, in the most unexpected places. It's like a game of telephone through time.