Hundertwasser Art

Life of Hundertwasser

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Hundertwasser's father Ernst Stowasser died three months after his son's first birthday. The Second World War was a hard time for Hundertwasser and his mother Elsa, as she was Jewish. They avoided persecution by posing as Catholics, a credible ruse because Hundertwasser's father had been a Catholic. To remain inconspicuous, Hundertwasser joined the Hitler Youth.

Hundertwasser developed artistic skills very early. After the war, he spent three months at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At this time he began to sign his art as Hundertwasser instead of Stowasser. He left to travel, using a small set of paints he carried at all times to sketch anything that caught his eye. He had his first commercial painting success in 1952-3 with an exhibition in Vienna.

His adopted surname is based on the translation of Sto (the Slavic word for "one hundred") into German. The name Friedensreich has a double meaning as "Peaceland" or "Peacerich" (in the sense of "peaceful"). The other names he chose for himself, Regentag and Dunkelbunt, translate to "Rainy day" and "Darkly multicoloured". His name Friedensreich Hundertwasser means, "Peace-Kingdom Hundred-Water".

Hundertwasser married Herta Leitner in 1958 but they divorced two years later. He married again in 1962 but was divorced by 1966.

He moved into architecture from the early 1950s. Hundertwasser also worked in the field of applied art, creating flags, stamps, coins, and posters. His most famous flag is the Koru Flag. As well as postage stamps for the Austrian Post Office, he also designed stamps for the Cape Verde islands and for the United Nations postal administration in Geneva on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Hundertwasser considered New Zealand as his official home, and no matter where he went in the world, his watch was always set to New Zealand time. He was buried there after his death at sea on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2000, at the age of 71.

Artistic style and themes

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Hundertwasser's original and unruly artistic vision expressed itself in pictorial art, environmentalism, philosophy, and design of facades, postage stamps, flags, and clothing (among other areas). The common themes in his work utilised bright colours, organic forms, a reconciliation of humans with nature, and a strong individualism, rejecting straight lines.

He remains sui generis, although his architectural work is comparable to Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) in its use of biomorphic forms and the use of tile. He was also inspired by the art of the Vienna Secession, and by the Austrian painters Egon Schiele (1890–1918) and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).

He was fascinated with spirals, and called straight lines "the devil's tools". He called his theory of art "transautomatism", based on Surrealist automatism, but focusing on the experience of the viewer, rather than the artist.

Architecture

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Although Hundertwasser first achieved notoriety for his boldly-coloured paintings, he is more widely known for his individual architectural designs. These designs use irregular forms, and incorporate natural features of the landscape. The Hundertwasserhaus apartment block in Vienna has undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. He took no payment for the design of Hundertwasserhaus, declaring that the investment was worth it to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

From the early 1950s he increasingly focused on architecture. This began with manifestos, essays and demonstrations. For example, he read out his "Mouldiness Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture" in 1958 on the occasion of an art and architectural event held at the Seckau Monastery. In Munich in 1967 he gave a lecture called "Speech in Nude for the Right to a Third Skin". His lecture "Loose from Loos, A Law Permitting Individual Buildings Alterations or Architecture-Boycott Manifesto", was given at the Concordia Press Club in Vienna in 1968.

In the Mouldiness Manifesto he first claimed the "Window Right": "A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door." In his nude speeches of 1967 and 1968 Hundertwasser condemned the enslavement of humans by the sterile grid system of conventional architecture and by the output of mechanised industrial production. He rejected rationalism, the straight line and functional architecture.

For Hundertwasser, human misery was a result of the rational, sterile, monotonous architecture, built following the tradition of the Austrian architect Adolf Loos ("Ornament and Crime"). He called for a boycott of this type of architecture, and demanded instead creative freedom of building, and the right to create individual structures. In 1972 he published the manifesto Your window right — your tree duty. Planting trees in an urban environment was to become obligatory: "If man walks in nature's midst, then he is nature's guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest."

In the 1970s, Hundertwasser had his first architectural models built. The models for the Eurovision TV-show "Wünsch Dir was" (Make a Wish) in 1972 exemplified his ideas on forested roofs, tree tenants and the window right. In these and similar models he developed new architectural shapes, such as the spiral house, the eye-slit house, the terrace house and the high-rise meadow house. In 1974, Peter Manhardt made models for him of the pit house, the grass roof house and the green service station – along with his idea of the invisible, inaudible Green Motorway.

In the early 1980s Hundertwasser remodelled the Rosenthal Factory in Selb, and the Mierka Grain Silo in Krems. These projects gave him the opportunity to act as what he called an "architecture doctor".

In architectural projects that followed he implemented window right and tree tenants, uneven floors, woods on the roof, and spontaneous vegetation. Works of this period include: housing complexes in Germany; a church in Bärnbach, Austria; a district heating plant in Vienna; an incineration plant and sludge centre in Osaka, Japan; a railway station in Uelzen; a winery in Napa Valley; and a public toilet in Kawakawa.

In 1999 Hundertwasser started his last project named Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg. Although he never finished this work completely, the building was built a few years later in Magdeburg, a town in central Germany, and opened on October 3, 2005.

In his architectural oeuvre, Hundertwasser put diversity before monotony, and replaced a grid system with an organic approach that enables unregulated irregularities.

by Wikipedia

produce I - HUNDERTWASSER Litho WWF SIGNED LIMITED Ed 44 / 2,500

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Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Fund Raising Print - Lass sie leben - Let it life

Limited Edition of 2,500 pieces worldwide! Numbered by hand!

Edition/Copy Number: 44 of 2,500 (number on the photo isn´t identically!!)

Year: 2000

Size: 39 x 41.2cm

Description: Offset lithography in 7 colors with metal embossings, numbered by hand, printed signature. Dedicated the WWF Austria, Vienna, in the context of the protection program for ten threatened kinds, which stand for the substantial habitats of Austria, the rural culture landscape coined/shaped from the high mountains to.

Print: by B. Wörner, Rutesheim, Germany

Publisher: by Gruener Janura AG, Glarus, Switzerland

Reference: Catalgue Raisonne APA 123, 717A, Page 1008

*PRICE $2,600 USD.

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produce II - HUNDERTWASSER - color etching Limited [Edition 1304 / 2000]

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Hundertwasser Original color etching

Limited Edition: 1304 / 2000

Size: 24 x 20 cm.

*PRICE $1,500 USD.
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produce III - HUNDERTWASSER Pewter Medallion Zwiebelregenturm Traenen

2009-12-15T07:51:00.003-08:00

Friedensreich Hundertwasser's "Three Dimensional Coin Sculpture"

Sculpture"Zwiebelregenturm und Traenen" (Onionraintower and Tears)

Vienna 1987 Diameter 10 cm / 4 inches

Cast in Pewter

Reverse: work number, title, year, Hundertwasser's signature in the metal, modeller's sign, publisher and serial number

This medallion (coin sculpture) was designed by Hundertwasser, produced under his direction and then donated for fundraising and presented and offered for sale during the German ARD television lottery on Janury 30, 1988 for charity.

It comes in the original cardboard box that has additional pictures and information. The box shows its 21 years of age in that it has slight tears near the tab that closes the box and some edge wear.

*PRICE $900 USD.

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produce IV - HUNDERTWASSER 1975 LIMITED ed. book HANDSIGNED

2009-12-15T07:51:00.001-08:00

HUNDERTWASSER

Exhibition book "House of art 1975 Munich" ~ Ausstellungsbuch "Haus der Kunst 1975 München"

HANDSIGNED and HANDDADED with a handmade graphik from Hunderwasser.

HANDSIGNIERT und HANDDATIERT mit einer handgemalten Grafik vom Künstler.

Published from Gruener Janura Switzerland; Printed in Germany; 1975

First Editon of 25.000 pieces. / Size: 11.5 x 15 x.5cm

A very nice book with many pictures in color.

*PRICE $1,700 USD.

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produce V - HUNDERTWASSER - 2 Vol. Catalogue Raisonne

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Hundertwasser (1928 - 2000)

Catalogue Raisonne Friedensreich Hundertwasser
1791 pages (400 vol I + 1391 vol II)
1900 (!) color and b/w illustrations
book size 10" x 8¼" (25.4 x 21 cm.)
two volumes in a slip case designed by Hundertwasser, lavishly printed in ten colors on rounded, black-edged pages
editor Wieland Schmied
published 2002, Taschen, Germany

*English language edition of 2,500 from the total edition of 10,000 copies

original layout design by Hundertwasser
ISBN: 3822862207
Condition: new sealed in original publisher's packaging

From the Publisher:

The Catalogue Raisonne is not a posthumous tribute, but a living legacy. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, born Friedrich Stowasser, lived and died as Friedensreich (meaning "realm of peace") Hundertwasser - a name he chose for himself. Architect, ecologist, painter, designer, writer, innovator ... his list of talents goes on and on. Hundertwasser reinvented the art of living as an artist 24 hours a day. The lifework of this prolific creator is brought together for the first time in this limited edition of 10,000 copies. Hundertwasser began to number and catalogue his work in 1954 and had completed the task for his entire oeuvre, including short histories to accompany each work, before his untimely death in February 2000. He worked closely with TASCHEN on this project, designing the layout and the book itself: with rounded edges and a cover with colored velvet on black linen, the Catalogue Raisonne is an exquisite work of art.

*Volume I contains a text by Wieland Schmied, a celebrated art historian and a longtime personal friend of Hundertwasser, with selected paintings, architectural works, projects, and manifestos.

*Volume II comprises Hundertwasser's entire painted oeuvre, adhering to his precise numbering and information system, his architecture as well as everything else he ever produced, from postage stamps to license plates, architecture, and applied art. This is a testament to Hundertwasser's work the way he wanted it. Because the book's detailed concept, design, and text were completed by the artist before his death, this book now speaks for him, breathing life into his work.

*This Catalogue Books English language edition of 2,500 from the total edition of 10,000 copies & Good condition.

*PRICE $1,600 USD.

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