Öyvind Fahlström: Are You Happy?

A reporter works a New York sidewalk in 1966, asking passersby whether they are happy. Behind him, Öyvind Fahlström and his friends march with placards of the comedian Bob Hope and Mao Zedong. That film, Mao-Hope March, runs four and a half minutes and is the centrepiece here. On Boylston Street today, anyone who stops you to ask if you're happy has a clipboard.

Fahlström (1928–1976) was born in São Paulo to Scandinavian parents, grew up in Stockholm, and worked as a poet, journalist and critic, which shaped the art he made in 1960s and 70s America. The show follows that career through multimedia works, many shaped like games or cartoons, which the MFA calls deceptively playful. He described art as "a fusion of 'pleasure' and 'insight.'"

It fills one room, the Lizbeth and George Krupp Gallery (Gallery 264), and comes with general admission ($30). The museum stays open until 10 pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and the show runs through 21 February 2027.