Briefkaart aan Willem Bogtman before 1926

This "Briefkaart aan Willem Bogtman" was made by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst on a piece of card, at an unknown date. It’s a postcard, and, like any postcard, is defined by the process of its making. I love the contrast here between the printed and the hand-written. The word "BRIEFKAART" in blocky, printed letters, sits above Holst's looping script, like a bassline. He fills the space with lively marks. I can't read Dutch, but I can see the exuberance of the shapes and the differences in pressure as the ink flows. It reminds me that writing, like drawing, is a form of embodied thought. The postal marks and stamp add another layer. Each mark testifies to the journey that the card has been on, with the stamp acting as a kind of full stop. Thinking about journey's, and about Holst’s wider practice as a designer, leads me to someone like William Morris. Morris sought to combine art and craft, and, like Holst, viewed art as something intertwined with the everyday. Neither artist was interested in fixed meanings. Their work invites us to make our own connections.