Brief aan Mien Cambier van Nooten 1912 - 1940

This letter, written by Dick Ket, probably with ink on paper, is a dense field of script, a real thicket of words, where the negative spaces barely show through. I can imagine Ket hunched over this page, agonizing over every stroke, each word a carefully placed mark on the canvas of his correspondence. What was he thinking? Was he nervous to send it? The texture of the writing is what grabs me – look at the way the letters loop and swirl. It’s almost like he’s painting with words, building up layers of meaning, obscuring and revealing at the same time. There is a rhythm to this text that is both visual and sonorous, like notes being played on a musical instrument. Each stroke could be seen as a brushstroke, each word as a color, and each sentence as a composition, carefully constructed to convey a specific message or feeling. I see echoes of other artists who have explored the intersection of language and image. Ket’s letter reminds me that artists are always in conversation with one another, drawing inspiration from the world around them and transforming it into something new. Painting, writing, drawing – it's all connected, a continuous flow of ideas and emotions across time.