Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1919

This letter to Philip Zilcken was composed in 1919, using ink on paper. Just look at the pressure of the nib across the page, the way Rose Imel allows the forms of the letters to unravel and loop. I can see the artist thinking and feeling as she made the marks, and the materiality of the ink seeps into the paper creating different tones and shades. I wonder what Imel was thinking as she formed the curves and lines – perhaps preoccupied by the rising costs of living? The repeated up and down strokes remind me of Cy Twombly’s scribbled paintings. Like Imel, Twombly explored gesture and movement in his practice, creating a personal language to express an inner world. It makes you wonder about the relationship between drawing and painting, and how both can be used to trace and map the connections between our thoughts and feelings.