Y.I.P. Miami 1972

Oyvind Fahlstrom made this drawing, Y.I.P. Miami, using ink, and it looks like a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness kind of process. The drawing is crammed with detail, with tiny marks and scribbles building up the different scenes and figures. The penmanship has a loose, almost frantic energy, and that makes it feel like a direct transcription of the artist’s thoughts and feelings. It’s not about clean lines or perfect forms, but about getting the ideas down quickly. I’m drawn to the way Fahlstrom uses text as part of the imagery, weaving words and phrases into the composition. It makes you wonder about the relationship between language and image, and how they can work together to create meaning. This reminds me of Guston’s later work where text and image combine to create a kind of personal, political cartooning. Ultimately, the piece feels like an open-ended exploration, a conversation between the artist and the world, and it invites us to join in that conversation.