Brief aan jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout (1879-1969) 1889 - 1942

Else Berg wrote this letter to Jonkheer Hendrik Teding van Berkhout sometime in 1935. I’m imagining Else with her pen, poised, thinking through her reply, the curves and lines of the letters like a dance across the page. What I see here is the physicality of language, the embodied gesture of writing, the way ink bleeds into paper—the realness of communicating with someone. You can feel the rhythm of her thinking, the intention and care with which she forms each word. It's almost like the paper becomes a canvas, each sentence a stroke of the brush. There's a kind of intimacy there. In a way, Else’s writing reminds me of some of the drawings of Agnes Martin. Both artists were interested in the power of the line, the way it can communicate feeling, intention, or meaning. Each one, in their own way, adds to this incredible conversation that artists have been having for centuries. It's a beautiful thing to witness.