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

This is a letter from 1936 by Leo Gestel, held at the Rijksmuseum. The writing shifts and emerges through trial, error, and intuition – it's the kind of cursive in which you can see the hand moving, pressing harder, then easing off. I sympathize with Gestel trying to get his thoughts down. What was he thinking when he made it? Was the pen scratchy, or smooth? It's as if the words are trying to capture a feeling, an intention, or a meaning, but the meaning slips away even as you try to grasp it. You can imagine Gestel being inspired by other artists as he wrote. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity. This letter embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings over fixed or definitive readings.