Prentbriefkaart aan Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak en Philip Zilcken Possibly 1928

This postcard was written in The Hague, in the Netherlands, on July 20, 1928, by M.L. van Heuvel. The script is cursive and written in black ink on a white card. The language is Dutch. I can see the act of writing, the pressure of the nib, the dark curves and the rhythmic looping. The artist takes the time to share news of a recent visit to Pulchri, and news of an exhibition. I imagine the artist pausing between thoughts, the pen hovering over the card, waiting for the next impulse. What might it have been like to think through writing? What were they hoping to communicate? It feels casual and intimate, like a shared moment between friends. The writer makes corrections, the ink pooling in the amended phrases. There’s a sense of immediacy here, a direct connection between the hand, the tool and the surface. Van Heuvel made something to last beyond his own lifetime, and now we are here looking at it. In a way, all artists are in conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.