Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s Artwork Focused on Man and Nature

Abhishek Kumar

DECEMBER 15, ON THIS DAY

Today we live in a chaos of straight lines, in a jungle of straight lines. If you do not believe this, take the trouble to count the straight lines which surround you. Then you will understand, for you will never finish counting.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was a well-known avant-garde artist from Austria. His works of art are a reflection of his philosophy, which is focused on the peaceful coexistence of man and nature. He was a painter, printer, and architect most known for his vibrant, ornate, and biomorphic-shaped paintings. His best-known creation is the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria, which has gained notoriety as a significant tourist destination and is distinguished by its originality and creative vitality. In his works, Hundertwasser frequently employed spirals. The spiral represents life and the natural world. Many of Hundertwasser\’s paintings were his own creations. He used pulverised earth, shiny lacquers, egg tempera, oil, and watercolours in his artwork. He utilised a variety of colours in one picture and placed them next to each other so that they contrasted not only in colour but also in texture.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born on December 15, 1928 in Vienna, Austria. Hundertwasser began to develop artistic abilities at a young age. He studied for three months at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. At this point, he started signing his works of art as Hundertwasser rather than Stowasser. With a small set of paints he always carried, he started off on his journey and sketched anything that grabbed his eye. In 1952–1953, he enjoyed his first commercial painting triumph with a Vienna exhibition.

The Hundertwasser House

Hundertwasser used a variety of graphic techniques to create his artwork, including lithograph, silk screen, etching, and colour woodcut. He made an effort to include comprehensive information about each piece on the graphic sheet while still valuing transparency in terms of technique, dates, and editions. He replaced the straight vertical and horizontal lines with asymmetry, undulating swirls, and labyrinthine spirals, which he claimed constituted \”the rotten foundation of our dying society.\” Spiral themes, primitive shapes, spectral colours, and repetitive patterns appeared frequently in Hundertwasser\’s work.

A painting by Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Hundertwasser also worked in the field of applied art, designing flags, stamps, coins, and posters. The Koru Flag is his most well-known flag. He also created stamps for the Cape Verde Islands and the United Nations postal service in Geneva in honour of the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in addition to stamps for the Austrian Post Office. Hundertwasser died on February 19, 2000, at the age of 71. He died from a congestive heart attack while travelling from his adopted New Zealand home to Europe on the cruise ship of Queen Elizabeth II, in the Pacific Ocean.

The architecture of Hundertwasser

Although Hundertwasser first became well-known for his vividly coloured paintings, his distinctive building designs are now his most well-known works. These designs use the landscape\’s natural elements and asymmetrical forms. The Hundertwasserhaus apartment building in Vienna features undulating floors, an earth and grass-covered roof, and enormous trees sprouting from within the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. He refused to accept payment for his Hundertwasserhaus design, claiming that the cost was justified in order to \”avoid anything hideous from being built in its stead.\”

An art by Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser
2. https://kidzfeed.com/hundertwasser-facts-for-kids/
3. https://primaryfacts.com/807/friedensreich-hundertwasser-facts-and-information/