Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1916

Vittorio Pica, around the turn of the century, dashed off this postcard to Philip Zilcken. It's an artifact, a relic, marked up with handwriting, stamps and the ghosts of postal travel. I'm really drawn to that feeling of something provisional, like he's just trying out an idea, putting it down quickly. Maybe he was trying to figure something out, and this was his way of doing it – a kind of thinking-through-making, you know? I bet Pica didn't labor over the layout or composition; it was more like an immediate response, a fleeting thought captured on paper. There are layers and layers of these marks and inscriptions, like he's digging down into the surface. It's not about perfection or polish, but about the raw energy of the gesture. I wonder what was going through his mind when he sent it? Painters are always in dialogue with each other, across time and space. There's a beautiful ambiguity about this artwork, allowing for endless interpretations and meanings.