Two highlights emerge from Alfredo Pauletto's work – the first after his stay in Japan in 1959, and the second following the stroke he suffered in 1984: The horror of impending death is written on the faces of the terrifying heads. The painter manages to capture the panic in an impressive series of works and to free himself from it, at least to some extent. After this ultimate series of works, he cleans his painting tools and disposes of the unused canvases. While this series was created in the face of looming nothingness, the calligraphies of the second series are free improvisations emerging from nothing, poiesis in its purest form. The Greek term stands for productive making – according to Plato, it signifies the emergence from non-being into being. In Pauletto's work, the joy of success contrasts with restless searching and failure, which is also documented in his biography interspersed with diary entries.