Friedensreich Hundertwasser

For his golden towers ("Zwiebeltürme"), colourful mosaics and bright spirals he is likened by millions, but critics laugh at him and call him beautifier ("Behübscher") and sugerbakery architect ("Zuckerbäckerarchitekt").
The artist, architect, and society-critic Friedensreich Hundertwasser calls for controversy.

Friedrich Stowasser was born on December-15, 1928 in Vienna, Austria. In 1929 his father died, so he was raised by his mother.In 1936 he went to the Montessori school in Vienna. His younger years were interrupted by WWII, the jewish relatives of his mother were deported in 1943 and killed.In 1948 he got his "Matura (Abitur)", and stayed three months on the "Wiener Kunstakademie" with Prof. Robin Christian Andersen.

Lasting impressions left a Walter-Kampmann exhibit in Albertina and the Schiele exhibit. Extensive study-trips brought him in the years 1949-1951 to Paris, Marrakesch, Tanger, Tunis, Italy and Spain.

In the winter of 1949/50, when he was in Paris with René Brô, Bernard and Micheline, he changed his name to Hundertwasser (since 'Sto' or 'Sta' in the slavic languages means 'Hundred' which is 'Hundert' in the german language). In 1961 - when he was living in Japan- he changed his first name to Friederich, then to Friedereich and as of 1968 he signs with Friedensreich.

I'm a great fan of his work and thoughts. He is one of the few artists, who think that postage stamps themselves are little pieces of art, and who designed the stamps specifically for their small size (Until today all except one: Cuba, which was published in 1970)

In 1974 he rediscovered the hobby from his youth when he designed the Spiraltree stamp for Austria. Many people didn't find this a 'real'stamp. Hundertwasser says: "Somebody from Vienna sent a card with my stamp on it, but it was returned with the remark of a German-Post employee: 'This is no stamp'. I'm sure he doesn't find it art either." ("Art News", october 1976) The design for the stamp was made in Tunis, 1974 as an aquarel and pastel painting,

He wrote in "Three postage-stamps for Senegal"( published by Schöne Wege, München, Germany - 1983): "I adored postage stamps before I became a painter. It was great joy to collect these small colourful ('Bunte' in German) pieces of paper, coming from all over the world and take them off the paper. I had a large correspondence with stamp-friends all over the world. I would simply write letters to 'An unknown stamp-collector' in a city with an exotic name, I had found in the World-almanac. And I received an answer on three such letters. After that we kept on sending stamps to each other.... Long time I was very unhappy, since the paintings I made could not equal my stamps. Those stamps were the ambassadors of the world, the members of a world-parliament. They are like small paintings you can carry with you in a small book. They are cult-objects, just like icons."

Note the 'lips' in this picture. In 1951 Hundertwasser painted 'Yellow boats, yellow kisses' where he used this motif for the first time. After he had found it, these 'kiss-ships' entered his work repetitively. The two kiss-formed lips and a boat are playing an amusing game in their surrounding space. Closeby and far away do no longer count. The boat far away, just the contours, and no details, and the mouth closeby as if it wants to kiss you. This game lets the lips float in the space.
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This last picture is a part of the set of stamps Hundertwasser in 1983 designed for the United Nations on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The Right of Creation, Treaty with Nature, The Second Skin, The Right to Dream, Homo Humus Humanitas and Window Right

Window Right was declared by Hundertwasser initially 1958, and rephrased a few times. In 1983 this right was given to all tennants of the Hundertwasser Haus in the Löwengasse 41-43/Kegelgasse 34-38 in Vienna, Austria. This building was designed by Hundertwasser (together with the city-architect) as low-rent social appartments. A house was by Hundertwasser often called "The Third Skin" (which is "La troisieme peau" in French): "Man is surrounded by three layers, his skin, his clothing, and the walls, the building. Clothing and the walls of buildings have in recent times undergone a development which is no longer in keeping with the individual's natural requirements. Windows are the bridge between inside and outside. The third skin is interspersed with windows as the first one is with pores. The windows are the equivalents of the eyes."

In 1984 he takes an active part in the campaign to save the Hainburger Au (wetlands along the Donau). He camped and demonstrated there for a week and designed the poster Hainburg - Die freie Natur ist unsere Freiheit (Free Nature is Our Freedom). In October 1996, after 18 years of planning, the national park Donau-Auen was founded. This important week for the ecology was commemorated 20 years later by a stamp, which is a copy of the poster of 1984.

Since 1990 he worked on the following architect-projects: "KunstHausWien", "Raststätte Bad Fischau", "AGIP Tankstelle Wien", "Fernwärmewerk Spittelau", "Einkaufszentrum Village, Wien", "Textilfabrik Muntlix", "Rogner-Bad Blumau" and on the renovation of the "Martin-Luther Gymnasium" in Wittenberg.

On February-19, 2000 he died, just two months after his 71st birthday, of a heart-attack on the Queen Elizabeth II in the Pacific during a trip from New-Zealand traveling back to Europe. This time he didn't want to travel by air, but wanted to take his time and paint in peace. Originally he wanted to travel by a freighter, which would have been more in line with his outlook, but that didn't work out.New Zealand was his newfound home, which he indicated by having his watch always set to New Zealand time. According to his wish he was being buried in harmony with nature, close to the sea, on his property in New Zealand, in the Garden of the Happy Deads, under a tulip tree. He was buried with no coffin, his naked body wrapped in the Koru flag, which he had designed for New Zealand in 1983.

On 2nd June that same year Austria issued a memorial sheet based on his work "Blue Blues", created 1994 as oeuvre No. 944. This is Austria's and Seidel's tribute to Hundertwasser . Rumor has it that Seidel spent 15 hours a day, every day for two weeks transforming the graphic Blue Blues into this memorial minisheet with four color variations of Hundertwasser's work.