H: Friedensreich Hundertwasser

As I contemplated this letter and how I would use it, I tossed around a couple of ideas. One thought was hair and hands. Both provide a wide range of inspiration and opportunity for observation and rendering.


After further reflection, I thought I would once again venture out into cyber space and try to find an artist that I was either vaguely familiar with or not at all. Enter Friedensreich Hundertwasser. I know that I have had encounters with his art, but I don't clearly remember studying him.

According to http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/friedensreich-hundertwasser/, "Friedensreich Hundertwasser (December 15 1928 – February 19 2000) was an Austrian painter and architect. By the end of the 20th century, he was arguably the best-known living artist in Austria, though he was always controversial." He was born Friedrich Stowasser. Ok, so this guy changed his name to something way more complicated? Apparently, his mother's entire family was killed in the Holocaust. "His adopted surname is based on the translation of 'Sto' (the Czech word for hundred)into German. The name 'Friedensreich' has a double meaning as 'Peaceland' or 'Peacerich' (in the sense of 'peaceful')."

Much of his work deals with the environment and activism. He creates art wherever he goes in painting, drawing, architecture, and sculpture. He has an incredible website, Hundertwasser, where his environmental posters are particularly inspiring. He is not what I usually follow, but My Visual Vocabulary is not about staying where I am, It should be about expanding more than my waist line.

In his notes about himself Hundertwasser says, "The work of the artist is very difficult, because it cannot be done by force, diligence or intelligence.
I think that by strength and diligence and intelligence one can do anything else in life, but the rewards of art are totally unattainable by these means."