First letter home from New York (also I joined The Museum of Modern Art)
Martin Wong
American, 1946–1999
1978
A felt‑tip pen drawing that reads like a handwritten letter and urban sketch, where Martin Wong maps a New York streetscape and personal travel notes into a single diaristic image.
Your eye is first caught by the dense, looping hand that fills the sky like a continuous voice, which then leads down to stylized bridge towers, dangling ornamentation and spare streetlamps so the page feels simultaneously architectural, conversational, and intimate.
By fusing text, maplike imagery, and vernacular lettering, the work demonstrates a late‑20th‑century move to make drawing a vehicle for autobiography and urban memory, bridging gallery practice with everyday signage, postcards, and street culture.
Medium
Felt-tip pen on paper
Dimensions
13 3/4 x 17" (34.9 x 43.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist's estate
Accession
643.2012
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
