Dagboeknotities c. 1915 - 1921

Willem Witsen made this page of diary notes sometime between 1860 and 1923, and it's a beautiful example of how process can be the point, even in writing. The density of the text, the way the lines crowd each other, it's like looking at a field of wheat, or a swarm of bees; the grey scumble of the ink, close up, has a real texture. It makes me think about the physical act of writing, the hand moving across the page, the scratching of the nib. Look at the way some of the letters are formed – the ‘g’s and ‘y’s especially seem to loop and dive. This reminds me a little of Cy Twombly's scrawled paintings – where the act of writing becomes a kind of drawing. It feels very intimate, as if we’re glimpsing a private moment, a stream of consciousness captured on paper. And maybe that’s the point – not what’s written, but the feeling of being there, in the moment of creation.