518 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser* (Vienna 1928 - 2000 Queensland)

Friedensreich Hundertwasser* (Vienna 1928 - 2000 Queensland) Girl’s Discovery in the Grass, 1964 aquatint/velin 20 x 28 cm signed Hundertwasser Friedensreich, dated 1964 numbered 282/300, 607, stamped three times SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 1000 - 2000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 1000 Born Friedrich Stowasser, Friedensreich Hundertwasser attended Robin Christian Andersen’s master class at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna for three months in 1948 before moving to Paris and embarking on extensive travels through Southern Europe and North Africa. Ernst Fuchs also attended Andersen’s class; this early encounter with the post-war Viennese art scene and the work of Egon Schiele proved significant for Hundertwasser’s development. In 1951, Hundertwasser became a member of the Art Club, a central meeting point for the Austrian post-war avant-garde that united artists of widely varying styles. His broader circle included Maria Lassnig, Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs, Wolfgang Hutter, and Anton Lehmden—artists who would later become associated with the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Yet Hundertwasser’s own visual language remained distinctive, combining vibrant colors, organic forms, and spirals with a poetic, symbolic conception of nature, individuality, and creativity. He also gained renown in Austria through provocative art actions and manifestos, such as the Mold Manifesto (read in 1958), which railed against rationalism in architecture. In contrast to the expressive-figurative art of Georg Eisler, Alfred Hrdlicka, or Fritz Martinz, and the socially critical stances of Adolf Frohner, Florentina Pakosta, and Günter Brus, Hundertwasser developed a utopian, ecological alternative world. Artists such as Lieselott Beschorner, Wolfgang Herzig, Franz Zadrazil, Rudolf Schönwald, and Rudolf Schwaiger represent other diverse approaches within the Austrian art scene of that era. He achieved international acclaim not only for his paintings and prints but also for his architectural projects. These designs reject the "straight line" and integrate architecture with color, vegetation, and individualistic styling. Examples include the Spittelau waste incineration plant (designed for Vienna’s district heating system) and the public toilet in Kawakawa, New Zealand. Hundertwasser lived in New Zealand intermittently from 1973 onwards and died on February 19, 2000, during a sea voyage. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.