FRIEDENSRIECH HUNDERTWASSER A look into the life and nature of the expressive artist and philosopher… by “Rolf” Mr. Stephen Buccini

?Strangely Beautiful?

-Biography Born in Vienna on Dezember 15th as Friedrich Stowasser – Death of his father, technical civil servant & officer in World War I 1943 – During this year, about 69 Jewish relations on his mother’s side are deported and killed – Spends 3 months at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna - Lastingly influenced by Gustav Klimt & Egon Schiele Travels to Paris, develops his own style and adopts the name Friedensreich Hundertwasser Paints his first spiral, which influences his artistic style Receives the Sanbra Prize at the 5 th Sao Paolo Biennial. –Founds the “Pintorarium”, a universal academy of all creative fields Receives the Mainichi Prize at the 6 th International Art Exhibit, Tokyo Ferry Radax films the first documentary on Hundertwasser.

Influences, Gustav Klimt The work of the Austrian Painter and Illustrator Gustav Klimt – embodies the high-keyed erotic, psychological and aesthetic preoccupations of turn-of-century Vienna’s dazzling intellectual world.

Influences, Egon Schiele Successor to Gustav Klimt. Schiele made eroticism one of his major subjects portraying haunted, lonely, tormented spirits, rather than sexuality.

BIOGRAPHY CONT… Nude speech and reading of architecture boycott manifesto Los von Loos, in Vienna Collaborates with Peter Schamoni on the making of the film Hundertwasser Regentag First portfolio with Japanese woodcuts: Nana Hiaku Mizu. He is the first European painter to have his work cut by Japanese masters Publishes manifesto Humus Toilet in Munich. Also designs a postage stamp for Austria: Spiral Tree. It is the first in a series “Modern Art in Austria” Designs the Peace Flag for the Near East with a green Arab crescent moon and the blue star of David against a white background. He also publishes his peace manifesto November 18, “Hundertwasser Day” in Washington D.C. - significance…? It’s also “Rrrolf Day”.

Creations Postage Stamp for Austria. “Spiral Tree”

BIOGRAPHY CONT… Appointed head of a Master School for painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna Receives the gold medal for the most beautiful postage stamp from Italy’s President Sandro Pertini In Tokyo, Hundertwasser’s 21 st Century Clock Monument is installed Unveiling of the Danube Ship, MS Vindobona, redesigned by Hundertwasser, which awarded him the tourism prize of Viennese Industry Hundertwasser lives and works in New Zealand creating many more architectural projects and book covers Dies on Saturday, February 19 th in the pacific on board the Queen Elizabeth II, from a heart attack.

WINDOWS… “Some people say houses consist of walls. I say houses consist of windows.” (Reminder: “Thirty Spokes”) “The leveling of windows is unbearable.” “A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window, take a long brush and paint everything outside within arms reach so that it will be visible from afar to everyone that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardized man who lives next door.”

ARCHITECTURE! Hundertwasser-House, Vienna An unusual house that does not correspond to the usual cliches and norms of academic architecture. A house conceived and designed by a painter An adventure into modern times A journey into the land of creative architecture Where there are window rights and tree tenants and uncontrolled irregularities, uneven floors, woodlands on the roof, spontaneous vegetation and barriers of beauty. A journey into the land where nature and man meet in creation

Hot Springs Village Blumau, Styria This project is Hundertwasser’s biggest and most comprehensive project to date. It is an architecture in harmony with nature. The various architecture forms, such as the eye-slit house, the forest- courtyard house, the rolling-hill and shifted-hill houses have been realized for the first time. It opened in May 1997 and was awarded the Austrian Environmental Sign for Tourism.

District Heating Plant Spittelau, Vienna Hundertwasser took on the task of redesigning the exterior of the Spittelau district heating plant. It is equipped with the most modern emission- purification technology thus making Vienna’s air cleaner.

PAINTING Everything is infinitely simple and so infinitely beautiful…

What does man need to be happy? “I would like to show people how to live – and I do this quite instinctively – painting a Paradise that everybody can have, he only needs to grab it.”

“Paradise is here, only we destroy it.” “Why can an individual not live up to himself as a flower does?” “Colorfulness, variety and diversity are by all means better than the grey, the average grey.”

PARADISE… “Only he who thinks and lives creatively will survive in the present world and the world beyond.” “…Paradise, it is the place where we are rooted, and which is withheld from us by some unexplainable force. “The work of an artist is indeed very difficult because it cannot be undertaken by force, diligence, or intelligence.”

~MAGIC~ I would like to be called a magician of vegetation or something similar - a magician filling a painting until it is full of magic – with vegetative magic, with magic vegetation, as if one is filling a glass with water

Philosophy… The fight against the straight line. “Even if man is forced to walk through the streets straight as a ruler, his personal, individual trail is never straight.” “The eye’s nervous system perceives the infinite number of straight lines as acute dangers…Man grows ill without knowing why.”

Das kann ich mir vorstellen…