Prentbriefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1920 - 1929

This is a handwritten postcard to Philip Zilcken by Lya Berger. Imagine the artist writing this in Nice in 1916—the war years. I see the gestures of her hand as she makes marks with a pen. I wonder, was it a fountain pen or a dip pen? As she’s writing I imagine her thoughts forming as she goes. The ink has a blueish tint, almost the color of the sky, and as she pushes and pulls the pen across the paper, the words tumble out in elegant and looping forms. What was her intention? Was it a quick note or a longer form? The writing is dense and layered, like a painting that has been reworked multiple times. You know, the physicality of writing like this makes me think about artists like Cy Twombly, who made scribbly paintings as a kind of embodied language. Berger also embraces uncertainty, allowing her thoughts to flow freely onto the page. It becomes a record of her presence, a moment captured in ink and paper.