Art Rabbithole

In life and in history, there are always people who go unrecognised.

The quiet presences who never make it into the story.

Art also has its missing pieces, often left unacknowledged,

sometimes by accident, often knowingly.

History is clever at omission.

It celebrates the “fulfilled life”

as if luck and recognition were the only measures of worth.

But what about those whose lives flowed silently into others?

Those whose work, love, or sacrifice never bore their name?

As someone once said, “Everyone reads poems, but who reads the poet?”

We might ask the same of art.

Think of Vincent van Gogh—

Yet imagine him without Johanna van Gogh-Bonger,

His sister-in-law, who carried his legacy when he could not.

She preserved his letters, gave his paintings to the world,

and ensured his light reached beyond the grave.

Without her, would we even know Van Gogh?

Or would he have been just another person lost to history,

a flicker erased by time?

So when we admire greatness,

let us also remember the unseen hands,

the hidden souls,

The ones history forgets.