ON POSTAGE STAMPS
A postage stamp is an important matter.
Though it is very small and tiny in size
it bears a decisive message.
Postage stamps are the measure to the cultural
standing of a country.
The tiny square connects the hearts of
the sender and the receiver, reducing the distances.
It is a bridge between people and countries.
The postage stamp passes all frontiers.
It reaches men in prisons, asylums and hospitals.
The small postage stamps become big works of art
available to everyone,
young and old, rich and poor, sane or sick,
learned or illiterate, free or imprisoned.
Postage stamps must again become precious
like small samples of paradise
produced like cristalized concentrated beauty
in exquisite techniques.
Stamps should be the ambassadors of art and life
and not be just soulless receipts of paid postage money.
A postage stamp must meet its destiny.
Postage stamps must return to their purpose
that is to serve on letters.
A true postage stamp must feel the tongue of the
sender wetting the glue and being stuck on the
envelope.
A postage stamp must experience the dark insides of
a mailbox.
A postage stamp must suffer the rubber stamp of the
post office.
A postage stamp must travel in company with other
letters in mail sacks by ship, by air, by road.
A postage stamp must feel the hand of the mailman
delivering the letter to the receiver.
A postage stamp that has not been posted
is no postage stamp, it has never lived, it is a fake.
It is a fish that never swam,
like a bird that never flew,
a postage stamp must have lived as a postage stamp.
Only then, when this is achieved,
only then the postage stamp can start a new life
as an collector’s item.
Then it can be loved an appreciated for its beauty,
its exquisity, its preciousness
but above all, as a token and witness and messenger.
Every man receives this exquisite piece of art
free, as a gift from far away.
Postage stamps should be a piece of art witnessing
culture, beauty and human creativity.
This tiny piece of art often reaches a lonely human
being longing for this message.
So a letter has two messages:
One is written and personal
the other is a message from a phantastic kingdom
the kingdom of human creativity,
representing countries and nations and dreams do become true.
A just peace on earth will be the result
if man’s enthusiastic effort will join the
innate urge of nature to create beauty.
That is why I salute this big endeavour of the
United Nations to edit unique stamps of high quality
because who else should and must give
a spreading example to the world
for a better life on earth in beautifulness,
in harmony with the creativity of nature and man
if not the United Nations,
representing the hope of the people of this world
where the longings of all people meet.
Written in Venice on the occasion of the first day issue of his 6 postage stamps for the United Nations for the 35th anniversary of the declaration of human rights on December 9th, 1983.
Published in:
Schmied, Wieland (ed.): Hundertwasser 1928–2000, Catalogue Raisonné.Vol. II: Fürst, Andrea Christa: Catalogue Raisonné. Cologne: Taschen, 2002, pp. 1048-1049 (German and English, excerpt)
Schurian, Walter (ed.): Hundertwasser – Schöne Wege, Gedanken über Kunst und Leben. (Beautiful Paths – Thoughts on Art and Life) Munich: Langen Müller: Munich, 2004, pp. 87-89 (German)
Exhibition catalogue: Hundertwasser – Kunst – Mensch – Natur (Hundertwasser – Art – Man – Nature), Minoritenkloster, Tulln/Austria, 2004, pp. 140-141 (German)
A Magical Eccentric, Exhibition catalogue, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2007, pp. 173-174 (Hungarian and English)
Hundertwasser. New York, Parkstone Press International, 2008, p. 108
Hundertwasser – Le rêve de la couleur, Exhibition catalogue, Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, 2012, pp. 189-193 (French)