Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1917

This letter to Jan Veth was produced in 1917 at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. It’s all about line, isn’t it? Look at how the ink bleeds into the paper, creating these fuzzy edges around the letters. It reminds me of wet on wet watercolor painting, where the colors bleed into each other, creating these unpredictable, organic shapes. I’m drawn to the contrast between the rigid structure of the lines, and the almost unruly quality of the ink. The handwriting is tight and controlled, but the ink seems to have a mind of its own, creating these little explosions of texture around the edges of the letters. This tension makes me think of Cy Twombly, whose paintings are all about the push and pull between order and chaos, control and abandon. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art is a conversation across time, an ongoing dialogue between artists, ideas, and materials.