Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1909

This is the back of a postcard to Philip Zilcken, by Roger Marx. It's like a little abstract painting made of handwriting and postmarks. Look at the way the script dances across the page, especially the address, "La Haye" - which I guess is the Hague - so full of personality, like a quick sketch. Then there's the circular stamp, a little world in itself, a mix of text and numbers. The surface has such a worn, tactile quality, you can almost feel the history in the card's texture, the traces of ink and the smudges of time. It's so raw, so straightforward. Thinking of the gestural quality of the handwriting makes me think of Cy Twombly’s work, that same sense of immediacy and openness to chance. The postcard shares that kind of unfinished, process-oriented feel, embracing accident and ambiguity over perfection.