Annotaties c. 1900 - 1923

This page of annotations was made by George Hendrik Breitner, and I see it there in the Rijksmuseum. It’s all about the texture and feel of a working document: loose and full of ideas, a running commentary on what the artist sees and thinks. The overall impression is light, as if the artist only wants to capture the most essential elements. Look at how Breitner uses line here, mostly spare, thin, and uneven, to sketch out places, ideas, phrases, memories: just enough to trigger a thought later. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's notebooks, but less performative. I am drawn to the long list of words which run down the page, one after the other: they seem like a catalogue of the artist’s mind. The words are presented as if they are visual objects, and the image as if it were a language; the two merge. I love this quality of mutability, which reminds us that art is less about what we see, and more about how we look and think.