Sixteen Elements from Chile 1 1976

Oyvind Fahlstrom made "Sixteen Elements from Chile 1" with lots of cartoonish figurative elements floating on an earthy orange background. I’m thinking about Oyvind in his studio making this, each element a puzzle piece in a bigger story. It's like he’s made a collage of thoughts, almost like a stream of consciousness. The elements feel like little worlds of their own. I see the bold shapes, their outlines and colors, the flat planes, the little narrative details that make them pop. The elements are contained within the painting but they also extend outwards to link up with a history of picture-making. It reminds me how artists play with each other’s forms over time. We are constantly taking notes from each other’s visual languages! And in the end, it is a painting that is a portal to a set of conversations, interpretations, and ideas that never have to be pinned down.