Huwelijksaankondiging aan Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak en Philip Zilcken Possibly 1921 - 1924

Editor: This is "Huwelijksaankondiging aan Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak en Philip Zilcken," or "Wedding Announcement to Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak and Philip Zilcken," a print on paper with ink, possibly from the early 1920s, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It's stark, almost aggressively minimal. What do you see in it? Curator: Well, immediately, I'm drawn to the materiality. Look at the handmade paper – the rough edges. Think about the labour involved in creating that surface, specifically designed for receiving ink. It speaks to a deliberate crafting, a distancing from mass-produced wedding ephemera. Editor: That's interesting. So the roughness of the paper is a statement? Curator: Precisely. Consider the societal context: The presumed wealth of the couple being celebrated allows for a deliberate choice of handmade materials over cheaper, more readily available alternatives. It signals status not just through the event itself, but through the very means of its announcement's production. The printing process itself becomes part of the message. What does that suggest to you? Editor: It's almost anti-bourgeois despite announcing something traditionally bourgeois, the marriage itself. Is it questioning the consumption of art? Curator: Potentially. This artist uses accessible, available, commonplace media and techniques but transforms its implicit meaning, commenting on class and labour through material choice and modes of making. I see less a dismissal of artistic practice, and more a subversive action, an emphasis on skilled workmanship. Editor: I never would have looked at a wedding announcement and considered those aspects. Curator: That's the power of examining materiality – it allows us to decode the layers of meaning embedded within seemingly simple objects, revealing deeper social and economic narratives. Editor: So true. It's made me reconsider my definition of both art and artefact.