Briefkaart aan Andries Bonger before 1907

This is a postcard to Andries Bonger, probably made with pen and ink by Emile Bernard. You can see the artist’s hand so clearly here. The script pushes in on itself, a kind of nervous energy transferred right from the brain, through the arm, out the pen and onto the card. I imagine him writing quickly, almost feverishly to get all his thoughts down before he forgets. The pressure and flow vary across the page. There’s a real sense of urgency as the words crowd together, some darker and more emphatic than others. It makes me think about how he might have paused, maybe mid-sentence, to gather his thoughts before diving back in. You know, sometimes the most interesting part of a painting is in the gaps, the moments where the artist takes a breath and the work reveals itself. We see these kinds of conversational letter forms in the work of Cy Twombly. The hand of one artist echoes through the hand of another. It's all one big conversation, a sharing of ideas across time. Painting embraces that ambiguity, welcoming multiple readings, never settling on just one.