Untitled [verso] 1970

This is an "Untitled" drawing from 1970 by Joseph Beuys, and is inscribed with pencil on paper. I imagine Beuys with a stick of graphite, or maybe a very hard pencil, feeling his way through some ideas, using language as part of the drawing. I'm also a painter, so looking at this, I see the materiality of the marks, light pressure, and maybe a bit of smudging here and there. Beuys’ gestures are so light, but so certain, like he’s thinking aloud or tuning into something that already exists. And the image is sparse. How can it be so meaningful, so intense, and yet made from such a limited vocabulary? He’s in conversation with other artists, like Blinky Palermo and Cy Twombly, who also used line in this incredibly economic way. You know, art is an ongoing exchange of ideas across time. It's a call and response! It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.