Brief aan Philip Zilcken 1917 - 1918

This letter, written by A. Th. van Soest in 1917, is so matter of fact. I imagine the artist sitting down, pen in hand, carefully choosing each word, each sentence a deliberate step in this bureaucratic dance. The crisp black ink against the aged paper, there's a formality that speaks to a different time. I wonder, what was it like to be Philip Windt on his 70th birthday? A quiet affair, it seems, by his own request. No grand gestures, just the simple acknowledgment of a life lived and a commission of friends wanting to show their esteem. There is a subtle poetry in this everyday act of composing the letter and the materiality of the page itself – the texture of the paper, the weight of the ink and the turn of phrase – and how they converge to create something more profound and human. These artists, Van Soest and Windt, are in a dialogue, building on each other, responding to each other’s gestures and the works of those who came before, adding their own voice to this long and ever-evolving conversation.