Brief aan L. van den Broeke Possibly 1924

This letter to L. van den Broeke was written in 1924 by Jan Toorop in The Hague. The spidery black lines crawl across the page, anchored by firm horizontals, yet each letter tilts, falls, and rises again like a dancer. I’m thinking about Toorop, bent over his desk, pen in hand. Imagine him pausing, thinking, rethinking, and then pushing on. I bet he felt the weight of each stroke, a physical commitment to every word, a kind of dance of thought. Look at how the lines vary in pressure. See how sometimes they’re thick and bold, other times thin and delicate. I’m responding to the push and pull of his mind, his hand, and the way he’s wrestling with language to get his point across. It reminds me of my own painting process, where the struggle to find the right form is part of the expression. The way Toorop makes marks reminds me of other artists too, like Cy Twombly, who also had that raw, unfiltered approach to line and form. It's all one big conversation, isn't it?