Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1920 - 1923

Curator: Look at this, it's titled "Brief aan Jan Veth," or "Letter to Jan Veth" written sometime around 1920 to 1923. Editor: It feels so immediate, seeing the ink on this aged paper. The script cascades down the page in dense blocks; it’s like a glimpse into a very personal conversation. What language is it, Dutch maybe? Curator: Yes, it’s Dutch. It's a letter from someone at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, The State Academy of Fine Arts, likely an administrator writing to Jan Veth. It offers an institutional voice responding to perhaps a peer's inquiry, which given the period, would probably concern the politics and administration of the academy at that time. Editor: So, a little window into the bureaucratic processes of an art academy in the early 20th century! You wouldn't usually consider calligraphy in that context, but something about it being hand-written humanizes it. Each stroke conveys such intentionality, don't you think? Curator: Absolutely, there's an inherent beauty to hand-lettering, and here it makes you wonder about the unseen dialogue between the author and recipient. These formal, administrative, letters often contain surprisingly intimate exchanges. I like the phrase in tag form; "thick font" highlights the depth and richness, in more than one sense. Editor: It does create a powerful contrast; that tension between the rigid structures they would have had to adhere to and this very personal method of communication, you know? I think it’s also very relevant how our technology flattens such communications and it is no longer really an exchange between physical entities anymore, it almost feels... precious. Curator: Yes! I love that you saw that, it takes us back to those small things, we do so very big now, and the humanity present, not only in the handwritten message, but that the archive itself decided to store it. Very nice. Editor: Thanks, it was wonderful diving into those subtle textures; it all felt so tactile and real.