Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1922

This letter was written by Vittorio Pica to Philip Zilcken at an unknown date. I imagine Pica hunched over his desk with a scratchy nib pen, the ink bleeding slightly into the page. I love the imperfect strokes that form the letters; each word is a little drawing. Writing is a form of mark-making, just like painting. Think of Cy Twombly and his scrawled script paintings—are they writing or drawing? The act of putting pen to paper, or brush to canvas, becomes a physical expression of thought. We feel the artist’s hand, their intention, their doubts. The creamy white paper is the ground for Pica's gestures, his script. It’s all about rhythm, the rise and fall of lines, the spaces between words. Just like brushstrokes, these marks tell a story beyond the literal meaning of the words. It reminds me that all artists, whether writers or painters, are in conversation, influencing each other across time and medium.