Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1923 - 1927

This is a letter to Philip Zilcken by Rose Imel. It's a handwritten note, dated in July, and the script dances across the page. It’s interesting to think of the hand moving across the page, like in painting. Look at the way the letters loop and connect; there’s a rhythm there, a kind of choreography. The ink varies in darkness, like different densities of paint, suggesting a change in pressure and speed. You can almost feel Imel’s thoughts flowing onto the paper, the material of the letter becomes like the weave of a canvas. The letter reminds me of Cy Twombly, in the way that the words create a visual texture, a field of marks that exist somewhere between language and abstraction. It’s a reminder that all art is, in a way, a form of writing, a way of communicating ideas and emotions through marks and gestures. There is art in the everyday.