The biography of Friedensreich Hundertwasser

1928

Born in Vienna on December 15th as Friedrich Stowasser.

1938

Following Austria’s annexation, forced removal to his aunt’s and grandmother’s home on Obere Donaustraße.

1943

69 of his Jewish relations on his mother’s side are deported and killed.

1948

End of schools. Spends three months at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

1949

Adopts the name Hundertwasser. Start of extensive travelling. Develops his own style.

In Florence he meets René Brô and follows him to Paris.

1952

First exhibition in Art Club of Vienna.

1953

Paints his first spiral.

1954

First exhibition in Paris at the Studio Paul Facchetti. Develops the theory of “transautomatism” and begins to number his works.

1955

Exhibition at Carlo Cardazzo’s Galleria del Naviglio, Milan.

1956

Publishes his theory of “Transautomatism” in “Cimaises” and “Phases” in Paris.

1957

Publishes the “Grammar of Seeing”.

1958

Reads his “Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture” on the occasion of a congress in Seckau Monastery.

1959

Together with Ernst Fuchs and Arnulf Rainer, founds the “Pintorarium”, a universal academy of all creative fields. As guest lecturer at the Academy of Fine Art in Hamburg, he draws the “Endless Line” with Bazon Brock and Schuldt.

1961

Visits Japan. Successful exhibition in Tokyo.

1962

Marries Yuko Ikewada (divorced 1966). Paints in a Studio on the Giudecca, Venice. Very successful retrospective at the Venice Biennale.

1964

Large retrospective in the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, with œuvre catalogue.

1966

First documentary film, produced by Ferry Radax.

1967

Nude speech for “The Right to a Third Skin” in Munich.

1968-1972

The “San Giuseppe T” is converted into the “Regentag” in dockyards in the Venice lagoon.

1968

Nude speech and reading of “Los von Loos” (Loose from Loos) in Vienna.

1969

Museum exhibitions in the United States.

1971

Lives and works on board of “Regentag” in the Venice lagoon. Works on the Olympia poster for Munich in Lengmoos.

1970-1972

Collaboration with Peter Schamoni on the film 1972 “Hundertwasser Regentag”.

Works on the “Regentag” print portfolio in Dietz Offizin in Lengmoos, Bavaria.

Friendship with Joram Harel.

In the TV show “Wünsch Dir was” (Make a Wish), demonstrates in support of roof forestation and individual façade design. Publishes manifesto “Your window right – your tree duty”.

1973

First portfolio with Japanese woodcuts: “Nana Hyaku Mizu”. Hundertwasser is the first European painter to have his works cut by Japanese masters. Takes part in the Milan Triennial, where c. 15 tree tenants are planted in the Via Manzoni. Touring exhibition in New Zealand.

1975

Exhibition in Haus der Kunst, Munich. Manifesto “Humus-Toilet” in Munich. Designs a postage stamp for Austria: “Spiral Tree”. Hereby launches the series “Modern Art in Austria”.

Engraver of all postage stamps: Wolfgang Seidel. Beginning of the world travelling exhibition tour in the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, continues until 1983 in 27 countries and 43 museums. In the Albertina, Vienna, start of the world travelling exhibition of his complete graphic œuvre. It continues until 1992 in 15 countries and more than 80 museums and galleries.

Sails the “Regentag” across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal to the Pacific.

1978

Designs “Peace flag for the Holy Land” with a green Arab sickle moon and blue Star of David against a white background and publishes his “Peace Manifesto”.

1979

Three stamps printed for the Senegal. Reads manifesto on recycling “Shit Culture – Holy Shit” at Pfäffikon on the Lake of Zurich. The touring exhibition “Hundertwasser Is Painting” with 40 new works starts in New York.

1980

Speaks on ecology, against nuclear power and for an architecture befitting man and nature in the U.S. Senate, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., in Berlin, in Vienna and Oslo Technical Universities.

“Hundertwasser Day” in Washington, D.C., tree planting in Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C.

1981

Appointed to the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Writes “Guidelines for the Hundertwasser Master School”.

1982

Postage stamps for the Cape Verde Islands.

1983

Designs six postage stamps for the United Nations. Founds a committee for the preservation of the old Kawakawa Post Office, New Zealand.

Works in Spinea on silkscreen 860 Homo Humus Come Va How Do You Do in 10.002 different versions.

Designs a flag for New Zealand, the Koru.

1984

Takes an active part in campaigns to save Hainburg leas. Camps in the leas for a week.

1985

Start of the cooperation with the architect Peter Pelikan. Works all year on the building site of the Hundertwasserhouse in Vienna.

70.000 visitors attend the “Open House”.

1986

Designs “Uluru – Down-under Flag” for Australia. Design of the Brockhaus Encyclopaedia.

1987

Redesigns St. Barbara’s Church in Bärnbach, Styria, and plans a Children’s Day-care Centre in Heddernheim, Frankfurt.

1988

Redesigns and campaigns to retain the existing form of Austrian licence plates. Further involvement in the campaign to preserve Austrian identity in the matter of licence plates.

1989

Builds architecture model “In the Meadow Hills”.

1990

Works on architecture projects:

KunstHausWien; Highway Restaurant Bad Fischau; District Heating Plant Spittelau, Vienna; In the Meadows, Bad Soden, Germany; Village Shopping Mall, Vienna; Textile Factory Muntlix, Vorarlberg; Winery Napa Valley, California.

1991

Inauguration of KunstHausWien on April, 9. Concept and development of architecture projects: inner Courtyard of the Housing Development in Plochingen, Germany; the Thermal Village Blumau, Styria, for Rogner Austria, which is the realisation of Hundertwasser’s idea “In the Meadow Hills” – Rolling Hills.

1992

In Tokyo Hundertwasser’s Countdown 21st Century Monument for TBS is installed.

1993

Involvement in the campaign opposing Austria’s joining of the European Union.

1995

Works on the Hundertwasser-Bible

1996

Exhibition at the Municipal Museum in Braunschweig.

Unveiling of the Danube ship “MS Vindobona”, redesigned by Hundertwasser.

1997

Design and planning of architecture projects:

The Forest Spiral of Darmstadt, Hohe-Haine-Dresden, Germany; MOP Maishima Incineration Plant for the city of Osaka, Japan; Market Hall Altenrhein, Switzerland. Beginning of construction work at the Martin Luther Gymnasium in Wittenberg, Germany.

1998

Retrospective museum exhibition at the Institute Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany, and in Japan. Architecture design for the Pumping Station, Sakishima Island, Osaka, Japan. Works on the Portfolio “La Giudecca Colorata”.

1999

Architecture projects:

Maishima Sludge Center, Osaka; The Green Citadel of Magdeburg, Hundertwasser Environmental Railroad Station, Uelzen, Ronald McDonald House, Essen, Germany; Kawakawa Public Toilet, New Zealand. Museum exhibitions of architecture work in Japan.

2000

Architecture projects for Tenerife and Dillingen/Saar, Germany.

Dies on Saturday, February 19, in the Pacific, on board of Queen Elizabeth 2 from a heart attack. According to his wish he is being buried in harmony with nature on his land in New Zealand, in the Garden of the Happy Deads under a Tulip Tree.