Hundertwasser - frequent questions about the Austrian artist - answered shortly

In our article “Friedensreich Hundertwasser - the colorful“ architectural doctor ” we dealt with the biography, the career and the many areas of creating the Austrian thousand all -massas. There were still a few questions about the exceptional artist, whom we would like to devote ourselves now.

Frequent questions about the Austrian artist - answered shortly:

Who was Hundertwasser Friedensreich?

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist who shaped the second half of the 20th century with his diverse work.

Hundertwasser lived and worked as a global citizen, he influenced the art, architecture and environmental understanding of many people in many countries around the world . He has sprinkled a colorful and diverse seed internationally, which (and at the moment (and more often) more and more often) produces ideas about human and environmentally friendly life and living.

Hundertwasser was born in 1928 as Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna and was brought up by his mother Elsa alone because of the early death of the father (appendicitis) from 1929 alone. Elsa Stowasser promoted her son's creativity and trained him in the then only Montessori school in Vienna, where the art teachers attested him an extraordinary sense of shapes and colors.

The Austrian Jewish faith also managed to let her son baptize her son in 1935 in 1935 and to bring both safely through the National Socialist terror.

After graduating from high school in 1948, Friedrich briefly visited the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts until in the spring of 1949 he broke out from his mentally very close home into the big, wide world. Friedensreich Hundertwasser traveled to Italy and France, Morocco and Tunisia, studied the art of his time and ancestors, got to know other artists and was inspired by their work.

He learned Italian, French and English, and soon the trips went on to the world and Arabic, Russian, Czech, Japanese.

Hundertwasser miniature painting was always there, he painted everywhere and soon exhibited everywhere: 1953 in Vienna, 1956 in Paris and 1961 in Japan; Later at the Venice Biennale, the Documenta in Kassel, the international art exhibition in Tokyo and with hiking exhibitions in the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

He lived on his farm in Normandy, in an industrial wasteland in the Lower Austrian Waldviertel and finally on an old Salzfrachter, all converted by him and designed in his very own way. It expanded the Kaurinui Valley in the New Zealand Bay of Islands into a place of residence and returned the country to this expansion of nature:

The old farm house was modernized, hundred water planted more than 100,000 local trees, built Teiche with water energy systems and plant-covered sewage treatment plants, solar collectors and a number of creative studios, living and work rooms called Bottlehouse, Mountain Hut, Pigsty.

A few years later, Hundertwasser in Italy acquired a "finished paradise": the Venetian Giardino Eden, a historic Palazzo one of the most famous gardens in Venice.

He married twice and was divorced and in 1981 his only daughter to whom he never had contact. From 1962, Hundertwasser taught art as a lecturer, also in practical cooperation with young architects, craftsmen, artists.

In addition to numerous exhibitions at the most important exhibitions in the world, posters for the Olympics and stamps for Austria, the UN Post management and many countries was increasingly active in the field of architecture: it designed numerous colorful, organic houses and facades all over the world.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser's relationship to home always remained alive and the posterity preserved in numerous Austrian hundred water houses; He was on the return trip from New Zealand to Vienna when he died of heart failure on board a raised lake steamer in February 2000.

What is typical for Hundertwasser?

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was brought up by his mother in an environment of brown provinciality and narrow -mindedness into a creative, independent thinker. Typical for him (and other "free thinkers") is initially the urge to break out of the home environment and to expand his horizon. Free thinking often goes hand in hand with creativity or creates them, art pens has been a tried and tested means of expanding the perspective since the Middle Ages ...

The talented, creative peace-rich hundredwasser also shows a reasonable sense of ecological relationships early on, for organic structures and causes-effect mechanisms . He was a "former green" in the purest sense of the word, which was legally loathing, angular lines and standardization by humans.

Its buildings were individually adapted to the natural environment and received special vitality through lively arches and imaginative facade design.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Rainy Day Dunkelbunt was an exceptional artist with talents in many directions , which he exploited with an irrepressible will to learn. He was driven by incredible creativity , a striving for meaning and wholeness , and of course also of his successes, which still make him the most successful artist in Austrian modernism in the eyes of many people.

his commitment behind all this art works is typical of peace-rich hundredwass : for a healthy life of humanity in conjunction with nature, for humanity and growing diversity, in architecture, vegetation and human thinking.

How did Hundertwasser get his name?

Hundertwasser began in 1948/49 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts to simply sign his works with "Hundertwasser".

Hundertwasser has formed this artist name from his baptismal name Stowasser, based on the origin of his parents: the von Ernst Stowasser family came from Bohemia, the family of Elsa Stowasser from Moravia, both Slavic language areas in which the word "Sto" stands for "hundred".

Later, Hundertwasser found out that when he adapted his name to the new home of the family, he hit the mark twice: the name Stowasser is well occupied in the history of the Egerland in the western Czech Republic, but also present in the Tyrolean dialect, where it stands for standing water and traffic jams.

Hundertwasser is said to have deliberately ignored the interpretation of the name component in the direction of "standing water"- easy to understand with an artist who has spent his life to stir up "permanently" pool of retracted habits, perspectives and construction methods.

Hundertwasser shaped the first name of Friedensreich in Japan in 1961: As was customary in Japan, he looked at the stems of his baptismalist Friedrich to put them together with more meaningfulness. The name Friedrich consists of the tribes "Fried" from Old High German Fridu = Friede, Protection, Security and "Rich" from Old High German Rîhhi = powerful, rich; Both together refer to the mighty ruler, who was able to offer protection in war. Since this usual interpretation has little to do with the thoughts of thoughts, he preferred to call himself a "peace-empire", "peace" and from 1968 "peaceful".

What does a "real hundred water" cost?

It depends on which object of the diverse hundred water art you want to acquire:

A real oil painting begins at auctions with prices of around 120,000 to 200,000 euros. A small watercolor was auctioned for 20,000 euros in 2013, the graphics (lithographs, screen prints, etchings, colored woodcuts) manufactured in small series be auctioned at 6,000, 8,000 euros.

A visual carpet made in Mexico from Hundertwasser's tapisserie series is called up with 15,000 euros, the "Verary Manifesto against rationalism in architecture" from 1958 is hand-signed by Hundertwasser for 1,800 euros.

The many objects of applied hundred-water art are more difficult to find than to pay: the color serigraphy on several staggered glass panes called "Fall in Cloud, Fall in Fog, Fog Out" (1979) was auctioned in 2007 for a good 3,000 euros.

The dimensions of the elaborate manufacturing process become clear when you consider that 61 printing processes were necessary (29 of them as screen prints and 32 metal embossing). The result of this multi -stage creative process is an impressive three -dimensional image, which shows a transparent city in bright colors and sparkling metals.

The development of the property lasted from 1973 to 1979. As a coordinator, Alberto Della Vecchia was at his side and the screen prints were manufactured by Hundertwasser's long -standing Venetian printer, Claudio Barbato, in an edition of 999 copies.

The ceramic object "Spiralental" from 1983 (Rosenthal annual property) recently went over the counter for 1,200 euros.

After one of the legendary hundred water, cicadic dragon (traditional Japanese insect dragon with a circular bullwood, made for a hiking exhibition in 1988), the owner of the small museum in Schweinfurt, who presented a hundred water duration exhibition there, had to search for several years.

It is easier to find (e.g. on eBay) the poster of Friedensreich Hundertwasser to the Olympic Games in Munich 1972, which is offered in the 1st edition of 125 euros, and the stamps: Senegal block No. 705-707 currently costs 468 euros.

If you want to get to know the work of the artist all around, you can treat yourself to a preferred edition of the Hundertwasser works directory, in book design with original hundred water etching for 990 euros ... or hundred water art free of charge, in the Schweinfurt museum just mentioned and in the cityscape of many German and Austrian locations .

What do rainy day and dark -colored mean?

Rainy Day and Dunkelbunt are names with which Hundertwasser, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, expanded the name of his person (presumably to adapt this name more to the width of his experience, his personality).

In 1949 the Stowasser became a hundred water, from 1961 to 1968 the Friedrich became the peace-rich from the peace-rich.

Rainy day and dark colored both refer to its origins in painting and its fascination for colors:

From 1972 Friedensreich Hundertwasser expanded his artist pseudonym with the word "rainy day" because he had become aware of how colors shine in the rain. The rainy days were for a long time the days when he preferred to paint and the happiest, the shining creation of these days should now be immortalized and praised in the stage name.

Dark -colored Hundertwasser added in New Zealand in 1978, as an expression for the maximum possible concentration. Hundertwasser loved the darkness of the colors that are far from white. This does not mean an ordinary full tone - Hundertwasser mixed its colors itself, from earth and volcanic sand, clay and charcoal, lime and oranges, red, almost black bricks, egg and oil.

And it did not stay with dark colored, but combined these colors with bright oil and watercolor tones, fluorescent and phosphorescent colors, metallic pigments and ornamental rock.

Where can there be works of art from Hundertwasser to buy?

In many well -known galleries and on art auctions around the globe , whenever an art lover (or his heir) separates from an "original Hundertwasser".

Art is often auctioned by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in the Vienna auction house Dorotheum , which was founded in 1707 by Emperor Joseph I and, as the largest Central European auction house for (applied), has made a good name for (applied) art far beyond German -speaking countries.

If you are looking for a very specific work of art from Friedensreich Hundertwasser or doubts the authenticity of a hundred-water originals, it is best to contact Namida AG, C/O Stauffacher Treuhand AG in 8750 Glarus/Switzerland (formerly Grüner Janura AG)

This stock corporation for carrying out creative, artistic and entertaining activities has been managing the Hundertwasser's copyrights since 1972, now as a subsidiary of the Hundertwasser, non -profit private foundation from 1988, which made Friedensreich Hundertwasser sole inheritance in its will.

Art in the sense of Friedensreich Hundertwasser is available in every handicraft shop that is enjoying colorful diversity, and on platforms for handmade products like Etsy.

It would be more contemporary, however, to live hundred water instead of consuming: with colorful, decent, natural architecture and roof accumulation, green petrol stations and invisible, inaudible highways - all ideas that "architectural doctor" hundred water propagated around 50 years ago.

We will not stay for another 50 years because the “life in accordance with the laws of nature” demanded by Friedensreich Hundertwasser has now become essential for survival.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

www. kunstplaza .de/