Briefkaart aan Willem Bogtman 1922

This is a postcard to Willem Bogtman by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, and it's just covered in handwriting! It’s all about the gesture, this urgent, forward-leaning script, a real record of the process of communication. There is an intimacy here, it’s like a whisper. It feels like you are intruding on something private, or like you just found something in the street. The marks have been made with a delicate hand, maybe a fountain pen, with the ink sitting ever so slightly on the surface of the paper. Look at the variety of the individual letterforms, the way they swell and contract, their rhythm. Notice the address at the bottom, the way it's underlined with a decisive stroke. The text itself is a world of its own, but it reminds me of Cy Twombly, who made work that was also essentially handwriting, blown up to a monumental scale. Both artists share a love of line, surface, and the beauty of something made by hand. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to shout to be heard; sometimes, the quietest voices carry the furthest.