In the early 1960s Ferrari made gestural drip drawings with entangled line structures, and what he called “written paintings”—drawings as texts and texts as drawings. By working in these two styles, Ferrari questioned the distinction between art and language—and between graphic gesture and calligraphy, a stylized form of writing. Typically realized in an overflowing, ornate, and dramatic calligraphy, Ferrari’s written paintings feature sarcastic and politically loaded poems masterfully transcribed by the artist but deliberately rendered as illegible scrawls.
Gallery label from 2023
