Hundertwasser's comment on the work

Alain Jouffroy, a well known young Parisian art critic, suggested that I try Philocybine, a new drug, under medical supervision, and paint under its influence. He would then organise an exhibition with pictures by famous painters which had been painted under the influence of this new drug, including pictures by Michaux, Picasso and me. I agreed, since it would be under the supervision of a doctor, and he took me straight to St. Anne's Hospital (the one where Fulchignioni had shot the spiral film which influenced me so much). A doctor gave me a handful of white pills and a glass of water. I asked where the other painters were. They told me I was the first one, but by then it was too late: I had already swallowed the pills. It was a white room with a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp hanging from the ceiling. I unpacked my painting utensils - primed paper, watercolours, brush, water glass - ready to paint when the "trip" began. Jouffroy and the doctor left me alone. I waited with brush in hand, but soon I felt so horribly nauseous that I could only lie down on the bed. The doctor came and asked if I saw, heard, felt anything. I said, "I just feel sick." The room had a high ceiling. I was alone again. I remembered I had come there to paint so that I could be part of an important exhibition. With utmost willpower I staggered over to the table, held my painting hand with the other, because I couldn't move it, laid my shoulder on the paper and drew the outline and then a "portrait" of Jouffroy, who came in from time to time. As the pills wore off I could work better. The pictures only seemed different because I was half paralyzed physically, not because I had had hallucinations. Afterwards I even drove Jouffroy to Place de la Contrescarpe with my own car, a bright-red Renault Dauphine, and that was where the streetlights were so beautiful. I gave Alain both watercolours. He did not organise an exhibition and even sold both pictures. I never took drugs again. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 372)