Brief aan Anna Dorothea Dirks Possibly 1925

This letter to Anna Dorothea Dirks, written by André Jolles, is a flurry of handwritten marks on paper, probably with a fountain pen. The ink varies in density, like the pressure of his thoughts shifting as he writes. Look closely, and you’ll see how the loops and tails of the letters create a kind of rhythm, almost like a musical score. You can almost feel Jolles there, processing grief into language. I’m drawn to the way the words cluster and spread across the page. Each sentence feels like a little world. Jolles's hand, with its unique script, is like a fingerprint of his mind. It reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly, how he made text into image, or vice versa. Art is a conversation across time, a way of reaching out and finding connection in the messy, beautiful chaos of being human.