Brief aan August Allebé Possibly 1907

This letter to August Allebé was written in 1907 by Jérôme Alexander Sillem. The strokes of the pen flow organically, like a vine climbing a wall. The letters are personal and imperfect, almost abstract in their form. The paper has aged, now a yellowed-grey hue that makes the ink appear dark. I like how the personal nature of a handwritten letter makes you feel like you are looking into the mind of the artist. It's like the written equivalent of sketches or unfinished paintings. Sillem's handwriting reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, where the meaning is hidden behind layers of gesture. Each mark, each flourish, tells a story, even if we don't know exactly what that story is. The beauty of art is that it embraces ambiguity. It is a space where fixed meanings dissolve into a sea of possibilities. Like a conversation between artists across time, it reminds us that art is a dynamic exchange of ideas, forever evolving, forever questioning.