Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1926

This little Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken was made in 1926, probably with pen and ink, maybe even watercolor, as a kind of material thought. I like thinking about how marks, in a painting, and in this case in handwriting, emerge through a process of trial and error. I imagine Vittorio Pica, pen in hand, thinking, what do I want to say to Philip? What does he need to know? What is the best way of saying it? Each stroke is a decision, each word a step forward, sometimes tentative, sometimes bold. The materiality of the ink on paper is key, it has a texture, a weight, creating a relationship to the surface. Look at the way Vittorio loops the letters in his handwriting, how he finds a rhythm. You can almost see the way his hand moved, like an embodied gesture, an intention, a feeling. It reminds me that artists, even when separated by time and geography, are in conversation with one another, influencing each other's work across generations. Painting is all about this ongoing exchange of ideas, isn't it? It's about embracing ambiguity, uncertainty, letting meanings emerge.