Brief aan Willem Bogtman Possibly 1933 - 1938

This is a letter, addressed to Amica and dated 1933, by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst. Looking at the handwriting, I'm immediately struck by its delicate, almost ghostly quality. The ink is pale, like faded memories. The letters are formed with a light touch, a sense of care that makes you wonder about the writer's state of mind. The rhythm of the script is kind of hypnotic, like a gentle wave washing over the page. There's a real materiality to it – you can almost feel the nib of the pen scratching against the paper, a whisper from the past. It reminds me a little of Cy Twombly's mark-making – that same sense of intimacy and spontaneity. Just as in painting, you get a sense of the person through their script, like an echo of their thoughts and feelings. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a kind of call-and-response across time and space.