Briefkaart aan Jan Ponstijn en Henriëtte Johanna Petronella van Hilten Possibly 1936

This postcard was created in 1936 by Leo Gestel, likely using ink on paper. I'm drawn to the handwritten quality; the marks are so immediate and personal. The texture comes from the ink bleeding slightly into the paper, it's all curves and sharp angles, like a dance across the surface. Look at how certain letters loop back on themselves! It's as if each word is a tiny drawing, a little abstract expression. The whole thing has this raw, unfiltered energy, like the artist is thinking aloud on paper. Gestel seems to be having a conversation with the recipients, Jan Ponstijn and Henriëtte Johanna Petronella van Hilten; the art becomes a space for connection, a shared moment captured in ink. I am reminded of Cy Twombly, whose painterly scrawls similarly blur the line between writing and image, inviting us to get lost in the sheer joy of mark-making. For Gestel, as for Twombly, art is not about perfection, but about the messy, beautiful process of thinking and feeling.