Prentbriefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1926

This is the back of a postcard to Philip Zilcken, there’s no date but the postmark seems to say 1911. Van Goethem made this with ink and paper, and probably a pen. The thing that strikes me is all the cancelled stamps and blurred markings. In some ways the smudges and stamps remind me of pentimento in painting - when an artist paints over something but the under-layers still show through. Those ghosts of former marks can be really powerful! Here, the traces of postal bureaucracy give the surface a depth and texture. It makes you think about the journey the card took, and the many hands that touched it. Like the best art, this unassuming card invites layers of interpretation and possibility.