Schetsboek met 26 bladen 1914

Willem Witsen’s sketchbook, now at the Rijksmuseum, feels like a portal into an artist's mind. The cover is a pale, unassuming tan, almost like raw canvas, but it's splattered with these fantastic, dark, inky marks. It's all about the process, isn't it? The way the ink has landed, sometimes a drip, sometimes a smear, tells a story of movement and accident. Look closely – you can almost see Witsen turning the book, testing a pen, maybe even wiping a brush. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's messy surfaces, that same acceptance of chance. There's one particular mark, a sharp, diagonal slash of dark ink, that really grabs me. It's like a lightning bolt, cutting across the calm of the cover. Does it represent a moment of inspiration, or just a spill? I love that we don't know. It's a conversation between the artist and the materials, a beautiful, unresolved question.