#psotta during early performances at the pacific ocean, in #peru 1982, outskirts of #lima. photo: piero peirrera.

happy new year! motto of the season: waking up the dead to join our struggles is always a good idea. this is h. j. #psotta performing with #grupo_chaclacayo #peru about 1986. photo: grupo chaclayayo | raúl avellaneda | helmut j. psotta | sergio zevallos.

H.J. Psotta, ...Todavia no sé si soy halcón, tempestad ó un gran hímno (...and I don't know, yet: am I a falcon, a storm, or a mighty song), 1967, 38 x 51 cm, Gouache on Paper, probably Gahlen (Germany).

I have just learned that H. J. Psotta and R. M. Rilke share the 29th December as the date of their deaths. Psotta was a great fan of Rilke and produced several sheets of Rilke's poetry. Here it is a poem from Rilke`s The Book of A Monk's Life:

I live my life in ever-widening circles
that stretch themselves out over all the things.
I won't, perhaps, complete the last one,
but I intend on trying.

I circle around God, around the ancient tower,
and I circle for thousands of years;
and I don't know, yet: am I a falcon, a storm,
or a mighty song.

(Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/ich-lebe-mein-leben-wachsenden-ringen-i-live-my-life-ever-widening-circles.html)

To be continued next year...

#psotta #rilke #art

All ten leafs: H.J. Psotta, Concrete Poetry, 21 x 30 cm, Colored pencil on letter and photocopy, Utrecht 1980.

In August 1980 Psotta received a package from Ruth Johow (Gahlen) in Utrecht. Psotta is describing the circumstances in a reply to Johow:
"I had to collect your parcel from the post office yesterday and I could smell it from afar - the whole room was filled with a sweet scent that I knew 'in the flesh'. A perfume bottle had broken and its ethereal contents had mixed with the greenish color of the tissue paper and conjured up whimsical, delicate ornaments on your letter. Wonderful travel patterns. I put these sheets together in such a way that continuous gray-green patches can form, pattern-repeat repetitions, - and will further condense them with colored pencil writing to form an air carpet from Tibet, a carpet Tibet made of pure fragrance (not the one from the broken bottle). I can also use the wrapping paper for similarly alienated purposes. I will light all the candles and think of you. Thank you so much for everything! And Benjamin's book was miraculously left completely clean, - but the spread curtain veils still give off a narcotic whiff; this former cowshed smells like a whorehouse. It really was a utopian, crazy package." Psotta to Ruth Johow, September 1, 1980.

Psotta was doing during this time a kind of script-zen-work. The "utopian, crazy package" inspired Psotta to directly work on the letter and copies of it. In this time his production is extremly dense. The first two leafs are made on the original letter, the others on photocopies. The whole series contains 34 leafs.

#psotta #art #lettering

from the psotta archives: h.j. psotta: at the grave of juan ramón jiménez, 3 studies for a woodcut and a carpet.
1. collage, tempera on paper, 38 x 27,5 cm, gahlen 1970.
2. collage, tempera on paper, 38 x 27,5 cm, gahlen 1970.
3. fine-drawing for a carpet, tempera on paper, 38 x 27,5 cm, gahlen 1970.
#otd juan jamón jiménez was born. in 1969/70 psotta travelled to moguer and lived a while in the house of jiménez. honestly i didn`t read jiménez myself, but psotta always valued jiménez very high. psotta travelled probably in these years twice to spain.

#psotta #art #jiménez #moguer

H.J. Psotta in Chaclacayo, Perú, around 1985; photo: Raúl Avellaneda.

H.J. Psotta would have celebrated his 86th birthday yesterday. To mark the occasion, I have prepared a visual version of my lecture from Santiago de Chile. In Spanish language:
https://hjpsotta.de/arte-sacro-y-subversion/
#psotta #chaclacayo #lecture #santiagodechile

h. j. psotta, who knows the dead boy? pope paul died after heart attack, collage, mixed media, 77x57cm, 1978.
2: intermediate state.
#psotta #art #collage

H.J. Psotta in Acciones with Grupo Chaclacayo, Perú, about 1985. Foto: Raúl Avellaneda.
Just to let you know, which part is cut here: https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/610612410894613996

#psotta #perú #grupochaclacayo

Invitation: Wednesday 27, 12 noon, Santiago de Chile.
#santiagodechile #psotta #lecture #chile

10 consecutive pages from h.j. psotta's sketchbook "el retorno de orfeo", 1997/98.
see also: https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/604483827727319059
music: https://youtu.be/SJpNlulUHWk
#santiagodechile #psotta #elretornodeorfeo #chile #art