Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1902

This is a letter to Philip Zilcken, from Alidor Delzant, penned in Paris on January 8th, 1902, and for me, it's the kind of work that celebrates process. The colour is almost absent, except for the inky dark marks against the creamy paper. Look closely at the way Delzant forms each letter. They aren't perfectly uniform; some are darker, thicker, more emphatic. There’s a real physical presence. The pressure of the pen, the absorption of the ink into the paper – it’s all there, laid bare. It reminds me that art-making is always a conversation between intention and accident. Delzant's signature is a flourish, a sort of artistic stamp, a gesture. You can see the hand moving quickly, almost dancing across the page. It's a reminder that art is not just about the final image, it's about the act of creating, the trace of the artist's hand and mind. It calls to mind Cy Twombly and his scribbled lines, and how he transformed the simple act of writing into something monumental. For me, art is an ongoing dialogue, a constant questioning and re-imagining of the world around us.