Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1924 - 1925

Curator: This is "Brief aan Philip Zilcken," a drawing created by Rose Imel, likely sometime between 1924 and 1925. It's an ink drawing made with a pen on paper. Editor: Immediately I’m drawn to how delicate yet dense the handwritten script is. It's a really intimate act, sending a letter – what strikes you first about the physicality of it? Curator: Well, the act of writing itself. You see, I feel like the artist's own emotions flow directly onto the page. It feels incredibly personal. Editor: Indeed, but I’m also curious about the choice of ink. It’s practical. Affordable, especially post-WWI, where material limitations played a big role for many artists. Ink circumvented expensive paints, but also produced these beautifully precise, communicative lines that echo her intentions as a sender and conveyer of specific information to a receiver. Curator: Absolutely. And that directness creates a kind of vulnerability. You can see every stroke, every hesitation. I imagine Imel bending over her desk, lost in thought, the pen an extension of her soul... It has an interesting story to tell if it could talk! Editor: I agree there’s an immediacy there. In terms of its "story", the work is itself a reproduction, of sorts. Think about the labor involved in the initial making of paper; the industrial design that formulates a pen; and even the means by which the letter arrives to its recipient via mail. These networks speak volumes about her participation within global systems of communication. Curator: All of that, yet the feeling is still one of profound intimacy, a private moment shared across time. It gives it a special touch! Editor: Yes, it pulls together a certain tangibility within a web of larger concerns. To closely examine such accessible materials allows for greater access to art making. Curator: What a beautiful point, as these are such tangible threads in the weaving of life! Editor: Exactly, it challenges these strict divisions we’ve erected between 'fine art' and the seemingly banal objects and practices around us. Curator: Well said! I look at it again, and I have renewed fondness. Editor: Likewise. It invites us to look beyond what it signifies, and towards its physical being in our shared, constructed reality.