Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1919

This letter to Jan Veth, handwritten in 1949 by someone at the Ministry of Education, Arts and Sciences, is a flurry of cursive energy. The text is a thicket of dark, inky strokes across the page, each word leaning into the next like they’re sharing secrets. Imagine the writer hunched over their desk, pen scratching, thoughts spilling onto the paper in a rush. What were they thinking? The controlled rhythm of the lines suggests a mind both intent and a little restless. It reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly’s scrawls, though here, instead of paint, it's the weight of bureaucratic ink. Look at how the script varies – sometimes tight and controlled, other times looser, more sprawling. Each loop and flourish tells a story of the hand that made it, the emotion behind the words. It makes you wonder what kind of world existed that made this kind of labor commonplace. It's all connected, this continuous artistic conversation.