Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1924

This letter to Philip Zilcken was written in Satigny near Geneva, Switzerland on the 4th of February 1924 by Alphonse Stengelin. What I love about this letter is its intimacy, achieved through handwriting, on simple paper with lines. Look closely, and you can see where Stengelin pauses, the ink pooling in tiny dots. It reminds me that art is often about time, and the time we take to make something. The ink is dark, yet seems to float on the page, like thoughts gently forming, one after another. The lines of the paper ground the words but the fluid script dances just above. This playful relationship between structure and freedom feels so right. It reminds me a little of Cy Twombly's scrawls, though Stengelin's intent is clearly communication, not abstraction. Ultimately, it's a beautiful reminder that art exists in the everyday, in letters to friends, in the simple act of putting pen to paper.