Geboortekaart van Johan Cornelis Blankert, geboren 15 september 1940 c. 1940s

This birth announcement for Johan Cornelis Blankert was printed in 1940. It’s a simple, typeset card, but the paper itself feels handmade. You can see the rough edges, and it’s subtly discoloured, not quite white. It immediately evokes the period in which it was made. The details are all there: the date of birth, the name, even the weight of the baby. But it’s the line “Moeder en Hans in goede gezondheid” – Mother and Hans in good health – that gets me. It's the most touching. The card speaks of a safe arrival, of a healthy mother and child, which can't have been taken for granted in the historical context. The slightly mottled surface and subdued tones give the whole card a ghostly, ethereal quality, like a faded memory or a whispered secret from the past. It reminds me of the work of someone like R.B. Kitaj, another artist who worked with found texts, in the way the simple, factual design is loaded with emotion and meaning. Art really is an ongoing conversation.