|
(Friedrich Stowasser)
Born 1928, Vienna, Austria.
Died February 19 2000
Austrian painter and printmaker. Born to a Jewish mother,
he foiled the Nazis and was able to shield some of his
relatives for a time. During Nazi rule he studied in
Vienna, at public schools and at the Montessori school
before briefly attending the Akademie der Bildenden
Künste. His floridly patterned works with their
haunting and rich colours are dependent on the decorative
tradition that produced Art Nouveau. The luxurious,
sinuous forms and expressive distortions affiliate him
to figurative artists such as Klimt and Schiele.
Hundertwasser’s subject-matter modified these stylistic
sources and was often influenced by his great interest
in a sane environment expressed as a stable relationship
between man, the built world and nature. He travelled
widely and developed a pictorial vocabulary unspecific
to any place or time. Hundertwasser made significant
contributions to printing techniques with such works
as the woodcut series Nana Hiakv Mizu (1973; with Japanese
artists). The decorative and technical opulence of his
work made him a controversial figure with the critics,
while assuring him a large popular following.
|
| |
 In
1948 Friendensreich Hundertwasser studied at the Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts for 4 months. A year later he changed
his name to Friedensreich Hundertwasser, which means "full-of-peace
hundred-water".
From 1949 to 1952 he undertook many journeys to North
Africa and Paris, where he started to deal with the paintings
of Gustav Klimt, Paul Klee and others. In
1962 Hundertwasser had his international break through
at the Biennale in Venice. Around this time he also made
ideological statements, with his famous nudist speeches
and his call for peace, ecology and new forms of architecture.
Not unlike the artists of the Session Movement, he saw
art as a decoration. Hundertwasser got even more famous
as an architect. From 1986 to 1991 he planned and realised
different buildings, like the Hundertwasser Haus and the
front of the waste combustion Spittelau. |
| |
 Not
content to merely paint and make prints, Hundertwasser
was also an architect (uncredentialed) who wrote manifestoes,
designed posters and stamps, and traveled the globe bringing
construction projects to realization and collecting awards.
He was also an outspoken proponent of many environmental
and anti-nuclear causes. Despite all of this, he is (rightfully)
best known for his vibrantly-colored, opulently-decorated
paintings and graphic works and his contributions to printmaking
technique |
| |
Important
Works:
• Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture
(manifesto, 1958)
• Good Morning City (1969)
• Song of the Whales (1978)
• Hundertwasser-House (structure; Vienna; 1977-86)
• The 30-Day Fax Picture (1994)
Download the
By Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Go
to the official Hundertwasser |
A
bit about Friedensreich Hundertwasser