Brief aan Jan Ponstijn Possibly 1926

This is a letter by Leo Gestel to Jan Ponstijn, from 1926, in pen and ink. Gestel has an immediate, restless, hand. Look at that looping cursive script, it's like a fingerprint of his thought process, a direct line from his brain to the page. You get the sense of someone thinking out loud. It's all about the texture here, the way the ink bleeds slightly into the paper, creating a soft halo around each stroke. The blue ink on the off-white page creates a stark but subtle contrast, it's a harmony. Notice how the writing sometimes bunches together, almost forming abstract shapes, while other parts are more spread out. Gestel's letter reminds me of Cy Twombly's scrawled paintings, which are artworks that share the same love for the gesture, the spontaneous mark, and the beauty of imperfection. It invites us to appreciate the messy, unfiltered expression of thoughts and ideas.