Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, born Friedrich Stowasser, (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000) was an Austrian painter, architect and sculptor. Born in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial, by the end of the 20th century.
Hundertwasser's original and unruly artistic vision expressed itself in pictorial art, environmentalism, philosophy, and design of facades, postage stamps, flags, and clothing (among other areas). The common themes in his work utilised bright colours, organic forms, a reconciliation of humans with nature, and a strong individualism, rejecting straight lines. He remains sui generis, although his architectural work is comparable to Antoni Gaudí in its biomorphic forms and use of tile. He was inspired by the works of Egon Schiele from an early date, and his style was often compared to that of Gustav Klimt. He was fascinated with spirals, and called straight lines "the devil's tools". He called his theory of art "transautomatism", based on Surrealist automatism, but focusing on the experience of the viewer, rather than the artist.
His adopted surname is based on the translation of Sto (the [Slavic] word for "one hundred") into German. The name Friedensreich has a double meaning as "Peaceland" or "Peacerich" (in the sense of "peaceful"). The other names he chose for himself, Regentag and Dunkelbunt, translate to "Rainy day" and "Darkly multicoloured". His name Friedensreich Hundertwasser means, "Peace-Kingdom Hundred-Water". Although Hundertwasser first achieved notoriety for his boldly-coloured paintings, he is more widely renowned today for his revolutionary architectural designs, which incorporate natural features of the landscape, and use of irregular forms in his building design. Hundertwasserhaus, a low-income apartment block in Vienna, features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. He took no payment for the design of Hundertwasserhaus, declaring that it was worth it, to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

He felt that standard architecture could not be called art, and declared that the design of any building should be influenced by the aesthetics of its eventual tenants. Hundertwasser was also known for his performance art, in which he would, for instance, appear in public in the nude promoting an ecologically friendly flush-less toilet.
On July 4, 1958 he read his celebrated and controversial Verschimmelungs-Manifest, the so-called Mould Manifesto against rationalism in architecture, in the abbey of Seckau. "A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door."
In 1972 he published the manifesto Your window right — your tree duty: planting trees in an urban environments was to become obligatory: "If man walks in nature's midst, then he is nature's guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest."

His work has been used for flags, stamps, coins, posters, schools, churches, a public toilet in Kawakawa in his adopted home of New Zealand, and apartment buildings. His most famous flag is the Koru Flag; he has also designed stamps for the Cape Verde islands and for the United Nations post administration in Geneva on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1999 he started his last project named Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg. Although he never finished this work completely, the building was put up a few years later in Magdeburg, a town in central Germany, and finally opened on October 3, 2005.
An art gallery featuring his work will be established in a council building in Whangarei, New Zealand, and will bring to fruition his 1993 plans for improving the building.[1]
Hundertwasser considered New Zealand as his official home, and no matter where he went in the world, his watch was always set to New Zealand time. That finally became the place he was buried after his death at sea on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2000.

Some Hundertwasser buildings:
Markthalle, Altenrhein, Switzerland
District Heating Plant Spittelau, Vienna, Austria
Hundertwasser House, Vienna, Austria
Hundertwasserhaus Waldspirale, Darmstadt, Germany
KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria
Kindergarten Heddernheim, Frankfurt
Motorway Restaurant, Bad Fischau-Brunn, Austria
Hot Springs Village, Bad Blumau, Styria, Austria
Hundertwasserkirche, Baernbach, Styria, Austria
Wohnen unterm Regenturm, Plochingen, Germany
Quixote Winery, Napa Valley, (USA), 1992-1999 (his only building in the US)
Maishima Incineration Plant, Osaka (Japan), 1997-2000
Public toilet, Kawakawa (New Zealand), 1999
Hundertwasser "environmental railway station", Uelzen (Germany), 1999-2001
Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany, 2003-2005
Ronald Mcdonald Kinder Vallei,Valkenburg, Holland
Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (eredetileg Friedrich Stowasser) (Bécs, 1928. december 15. – Új-Zéland közelében, 2000. február 19.)
Osztrák építész, festő és filozófus. „Sto” cseh nyelven azt jelenti: „száz”, ezt németesítette művésznevében, melynek jelentése „száz víz”. A Friedensreich jelentése béketeli, Regentag: esős nap (egyébként saját hajójának a neve is, amelyen lakott), Dunkelbunt: sötéttarka.
Építészete az organikus építészethez tartozik, melyet leginkább Antonio Gaudíéhoz lehet kötni. Jelentős filozófiai hitvallás van építészete mögött, mellyel az embert vissza akarja részben téríteni a természethez. Nagy hatással volt rá a bécsi szecesszió építészete is.
1948-1949 között tanulmányokat folytatott a bécsi Művészeti Akadémián, nevét ekkoriban változtatja meg.
1949-ben Olaszországba utazott.
1950-ben rövid időt Párizsban töltött.
1951-ben ellátogatott Marokkóba és Tunéziába.
1967-től nagy példányszámban keltek el grafikái és plakátjai.
1981-ben professzori kinevezésben részesült Bécsben (Akademie der bildenden Künste).
1991-ben Bécsben megnyílt a Hundertwassermuseum.
2000-ben, 72 éves korában, Új-Zéland közelében, szívroham következtében hunyt el a Queen Elizabeth II nevű hajón. Több levélbélyeget készített a Zöldfoki-szigeteknek, az ENSZ postahivatala (New York, Genf és Bécs) részére, az Emberi Jogok Egyetemes Nyilatkozatának 35. évfordulója alkalmából (1983), Liechtensteinnek (1993 és 2000), Luxemburgnak (1995), Franciaországnak (Európa Tanács szolgálati bélyeg, 1994) és Ausztriának (osztrák modern művészet témakör, 1975). Az Osztrák Posta további Hundertwasser-motívumokat használt fel az Európa-sorozatban (1987, modern építészet kategóriába bekerült a Hundertwasser-ház), valamint 2000-ben bekövetkezett halálát követően.

Épületei

Hundertwasserhaus (Bécs, Ausztria), 1983-1986
Rosenthal Selb (gyárépület, Németország), 1980-1982
Rupertinum Salzburg (Zungenbart), 1980-1987
Mierka Getreidesilo (Krems), 1982-1983
St.Barbara templom (Bärnbach), 1987-1988
Skanzen, Roiten, 1987-1988
Textilgyár Rueff Muntlix, 1988
Gyermekmegörző Frankfurt-Heddernheim (D), 1988-1995
Távfütő Wien/Spittelau, 1988-1997
Autópálypihenő-étterem Bad Fischau, 1989-1990
KunstHausWien, 1989-1991
Village beim Hundertwasser-KrawinaHaus Wien, 1990-1991
„In den Wiesen” Bad Soden am Taunus (D), 1990-1993
„Wohnen unterm Regenturm” Plochingen am Neckar (D), 1991-1994
Countdown 21st Century Monument for TBS Tokyo (J), 1992
Fontaines Zwettl, 1992-1994
Pavillon beim DDSG Ponton Wien, 1992-1994
Quixote Winery Napa Valley (USA), 1992-1999
SpiralflussTrinkbrunnen I Linz, 1993-1994
Hôpital (Oncologie) Graz, 1993-1994
Thermendorf Blumau, 1993-1997
SpiralflussTrinkbrunnen II Tel Aviv (IL), 1994-1996
Kid's Plaza Ōsaka (J), 1996-1997
Martin-Luther-Gymnasium Wittenberg (D), 1997-1999
Maishima Incineration Plant Ōsaka (J), 1997-2000
Darmstadt Waldspirale
Waldspirale Darmstadt (D), 1998-2000
Piac Altenrhein (CH), 1998-2001
Nyilvános WC Kawakawa (NZ), 1999
Környezetbarát pályaudvar, Hundertwasser Uelzen (D), 1999-2001
Maishima Sludge Center Ōsaka (J), 2000- -építés alatt
Grüne Zitadelle Magdeburg (D), 2004-2005
Ronald McDonald Hundertwasserhaus Essen/Grugapark (D), 2005