Briefkaart aan Willem Bogtman before 1925

This is a postcard to Willem Bogtman by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, written with what looks like a fountain pen. You know, handwriting itself can be a kind of drawing. Look at the way the ink pools and thins out. The words lean and swoop across the card, creating shapes and rhythms. It's a kind of performance, isn’t it? A dance of the hand. What I find interesting is that we can almost see the speed and pressure of the writing. Roland Holst is communicating with a friend, but he’s also leaving a trace of himself, a record of his own movement and energy. Like Cy Twombly, he makes marks that seem casual, but they’re actually full of intention and feeling. You begin to think about the space, the hand, the time it took to create it. This reminds us that art is always a conversation, a way of reaching out and connecting with others through time and space.