Brief aan anoniem Possibly 1847

Curator: This intriguing piece, "Brief aan anoniem," or "Letter to Anonymous," possibly dates back to 1847. Joseph Kayser rendered it using ink on paper. Editor: There’s an immediate intimacy conveyed by the hand-written quality. The delicate script, the creamy hue of the paper - it all points to an object handled and charged with meaning. Curator: It's believed that the content alludes to anxieties and financial requests concerning a portraits collection Kayser wishes to publish. Considering the time, what might that say about artmaking and patronage in the mid-19th century? Editor: Exactly! The letter becomes a record of those social exchanges necessary for creation. Ink was fairly readily available at the time, but quality and its effect on the archival capacity of the work, and by extension, the longevity of his art practice - must have factored in his consideration, the weight of which lands right here on the page. Curator: And what about the unnamed recipient? The deliberate anonymity suggests either a power dynamic or perhaps an intention to universalize the message – an open, unaddressed plea. Is it not possible, by erasing the individual, he makes his needs reflect on larger structures of precarity for creatives? Editor: Certainly possible, but what tools did the artist wield at the time, outside a written supplication like this? Did he engage in self-promotion? What was the cost, literal or metaphorical, if this pursuit? One way or another, a certain labor is embedded within its creation that deserves to be highlighted as much as his creative labor. Curator: Viewing this 'Letter to Anonymous' makes one consider, perhaps now more than ever, the politics of visibility and how that pertains to creative agency. Editor: Indeed, it is an artifact that shows how art materials aren’t neutral and creative agency had to find ways to exist given a particular economic ecosystem.