Prentbriefkaart aan A. van der Boom Possibly 1926 - 1928

Curator: Here we have "Prentbriefkaart aan A. van der Boom" a postcard by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, possibly created between 1926 and 1928, using ink on drawing, and held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately I'm struck by its intimate scale. It's like peering into a fleeting, private moment. The handwriting dances across the card. Does it make you wonder about the relationship between the sender and recipient? Curator: Absolutely. The means of production are crucial here: a simple postcard, mass-produced, yet transformed into a unique object through the artist’s handwritten message and presumably a printed image on the other side we cannot see. The postal stamp shows the materiality of communication. Editor: Right, the evidence of a transactional utility but rendered obsolete as it lingers with purpose. It makes you consider it beyond material constraints—a longing frozen in time? The ink itself seems delicate, like memories fading at the edges. Curator: And note the address meticulously written— Hedastraat 22, Haarlem. It is all very personal but consider Holst was involved in socialist causes. Could this relate to correspondence around organizing, networking, exchanging of radical thought? The postcard as a vehicle for a movement? Editor: A whisper of dissent amidst daily correspondence, I love that! Still I notice a certain beauty in this. Is the material making of history always so elegant? The handwriting lends character—like musical notes on a staff. Curator: Its elegance lies in the intersection of mass communication and personalized expression, where labor meets artistry in a mundane yet powerful object, it has me reflecting on artistic networks and the very infrastructure required for such intimate exchanges of radical ideas. Editor: A simple card that captures the whisperings of revolutionary intent between artists perhaps! It goes to show art is more than meets the eye when there’s such complex and unique expression between the material and the spirit.