Hundertwasser Biography
| 1928 | Born in Vienna on December 15th as Friedrich Stowasser. |
Friedrich Stowasser with his mother at the seaside, c. 1932
Photo: Hundertwasser Archive 
Hundertwasser with René Brô in the Castiglione pavillon at Saint-Mandé near Paris in front of the mural they painted together, 1950
Photo: Hundertwasser Archiv 
Hundertwasser before the opening of his exhibition at Studio Paul Facchetti, Paris, 1954
Photo: Hundertwasser Archive |
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| 1929 | Death of his father, technical civil servant and officer in World War I. | ||
| 1934 | First juvenile drawings. | ||
| 1943 | First deliberate crayon drawings after nature. During this year, about 69 Jewish relations on his mother's side are deported and killed. | ||
| 1948 | School-leaving certificate. Spends three months at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, under Prof. Robin Christian Andersen. Lastingly influenced by a Walter Kampmann exhibition in the Albertina and by Schiele exhibitions. | ||
| 1949 | Start of extensive travelling: North Italy, Tuscany, Rome, Napels, Sicily. In Florence he meets René Brô and follows him to Paris. Develops his own style and adopts the name Hundertwasser. | ||
| 1950 | Stays in Paris with Brô and the Dumage family. Leaves the Ecole des Beaux Arts on his first day. Paints two murals together with Brô in Saint Mandé. | ||
| 1952 | First exhibition at the Art Club of Vienna. Brief decorative-abstract period. | ||
| 1953 | Paints his first spiral. Second stay in Paris. Works in Brô's studio, St.Maurice. Second Art Club exhibition, Vienna. | ||
| 1954 | First exhibition in Paris at Studio Paul Facchetti. Develops the theory of "transautomatism" and begins to number his works. | ||
| 1958 | Marries in Gibraltar (divorced 1960). Reads his Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture on the occasion of a congress at Seckau monastery. |
The Hamburg Line - The Growing Red Sea, Lerchenfeld Art Institute, Hamburg, 1959
Photo: Hundertwasser Archive 
Speech in the nude for the Right to a Third Skin on the occasion of a Pintorarium action, Galerie Richard P. Hartmann, Munich, 1967
Photo: Stefan Moses |
1959 | Receives the Sanbra Prize at the 5th Sao Paolo Biennial. Founds the "Pintorarium", a universal academy of all creative fields, together with Ernst Fuchs and Arnulf Rainer. As guest lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, he draws the Endless Line with Bazon Brock and Harald Schult. Resigns lectureship following scandal. | |
| 1960 | Visits Japan. Receives the Mainichi Prize at the 6th International Art Exhibition, Tokyo. Very successful exhibiton in Tokyo. Paints in Hokkaido and returns to Vienna via Siberia. | ||
| 1961 | Marries Yuko Ikewada (divorced 1966).Very successful retrospective at the Venice Biennial. | ||
| 1966 | Unhappy in love. Ferry Radax films the first domentary on Hundertwasser in "La Picaudière" and in the Austria Waldviertel region (Lower Austria). | ||
| 1967 | Travels to Uganda and the Sudan. Touring exhibition in galleries in Paris, London, Geneva, Berlin. Nude demonstration for The Right to a Third Skin in Munich. | ||
| 1968 | Second Nude speech and reading of architecture boycott manifesto Los von Loos (Loose from Loos) in Vienna. Travels to California to prepare a cataloge for a museum exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley, (organized by Herschel Chipp). Sails from Sicily to Venice in the "San Giuseppe T", an old wooden sailing ship. Converts the ship into the "Regentag" in dockyards in the Venice lagoon. |
| 1971 | Works on the Olympia poster for Munich in Lengmoos. |
Hundertwasser on the Eurovision programme 'Make a Wish' with Dietmar Schönherr, Dusseldorf, 1972
Photo: Hundertwasser Archive 
733A SPIRAL TREE
Postage stamp for Austria, 1975 |
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| 1972 | Collaboration with Peter Schamoni on the film Hundertwasser Regentag. Works on the Regentag print portfolio at the Dietz printshop in Lengmoos, Bavaria. Friendship with Joram Harel. On the TV show "Wünsch Dir was" (Make a wish) demonstrates roof forestation and individual facade design. Publishes manifesto Your window right - your tree duty. The Regentag film is shown in Cannes. Sails around Italy to Elba in the "Regentag". Death of his mother. | ||
| 1973 | First portfolio with Japanese woodcuts: Nana Hiaku Mizu. Hundertwasser is the first European painter to have his works cut by Japanese masters. Takes part in the Triennale di Milano, where 12 Tree Tenants are planted in windows on the Via Manzoni | ||
| 1974 | Publishes manifesto Humus Toilet in Munich. Designs postage stamp for Austria: Spiral Tree, engraved by Wolfgang Seidel, the first in a series "Modern Art in Austria". The world travelling exhibition tour Austria presents Hundertwasser to the Continents (with catalogue) begins in the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Continued: Luxembourg, Marseille, Cairo. The Albertina exhibition of his entire graphic oeuvre begins a tour through the USA: New York, Boston. | ||
| 1975 | World touring exhibition: Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Dakar. Albertina graphic tour in the USA: Hanover, Brooklyn, Maryland. | ||
| 1978 | Designs the Peace Flag for the Near East with a green Arab crescent moon and blue Star of David against a white background and publishes his Peace Manifesto. World touring exhibition: Mexico City, Montreal, Toronto, Brussels, Budapest. Albertina graphic tour: Canada, Germany, Morocco. | ||
| 1979 | Peace Flag and Peace Manifesto are sent by Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to heads of state in the Near East. The Austrian State Printing Office prints three stamps for the Republic of Senegal and one for the Republic of the Cape Verde Islands, engraved by Wolfgang Seidel. |
ROSENTHAL FACTORY, Selb, Germany
Redesign, 1980-1982 
848 B RIGHT TO CREATE
One of six postage stamps for the U.N., 1983 
Strategic discussion with ecologist Peter Weish at the sit-in to save the Hainburg Au, 1984
Photo: Bernd Lötsch 
862 THE KORU FLAG FOR NEW ZEALAND, 1983
876 AUSFLAG - ULURU FLAG
Flag design for Australia, 1986 |
1980 | "Hundertwasser Day" in Washington, D.C. on November 18th, proclaimed by Mayor Marion Barry. Jr. Planting of the first 12 of 100 trees on Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C.; presentation of the anti-nuclear poster Plant Trees Avert Nuclear Peril to Ralph Nader's Critical Mass Energy Project, Washington, D.C. along with the environmental poster Arche Noah 2000 for Germany. Speaks on ecology, against nuclear power and for an architecture befitting man and nature in the US Senate, the Corcoran Museum, the Phillips Collection, all in Washington; in Berlin on the occasion of the 2nd European Ecology Symposium, at the Technological Universities in Vienna and Oslo. | |
| 1981 | Speech in Vienna on False Art against nuclear energy and negative avantgarde in modern art on the occasion of receiving the Grand Austrian State Prize on 14 February (awarded 1980). Austrian Nature Conservation Prize. Appointed head of a Master School for painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Writes Guidelines for the Hundertwasser Master School. | ||
| 1982 | As "architecture doctor", redesigns the facade of the Rosenthal Factory of Selb. Makes ceramic tongue-beards for the facade of the Museum Rupertinum, Salzburg .Donates poster Artists for Peace to the Krefeld Initiative. "Hundertwasser Week" in San Francisco, proclaimed by Dianne Feinstein, Mayor of San Francisco, to mark the presentation of the two posters Save the Whales and Save the Seas to Greenpeace and Jacques Cousteau Society. Presentation of the poster You are a Guest of Nature to the Centre of Environmental Education, Washington D.C. | ||
| 1983 | Edition of six postage stamps for the United Nations (2 each for New York, Geneva and Vienna), engraved by Wolfgang Seidel. Cornerstone of the Hundertwasser House is laid in Vienna. Designs a flag for New Zealand, the Koru, an Unfurled Fern. | ||
| 1984 | Receives the gold medal for the most beautiful postage stamp from Italy's President Sandro Pertini, for the 1,20 sFr stamp for the UN in Geneva. Takes an active part in the campaign to save Hainburg wetlands. Camps there for a week. Designs the poster Hainburg - Die freie Natur ist unsere Freiheit (Free Nature is Our Freedom). | ||
| 1986 | On 17 February the Hundertwasser House is is turned over to the tenants; 70,000 visitors have attended the "Open House". 1,000 green Koru-flags flow in New Zealand; great interest on the part of the population, press and parliament. Designs Uluru - Down Under Flag for Australia. Work on the design of the Brockhaus encyclopaedia, continuing into the next year. | ||
| 1987 | Cept Europalia 1987, a stamp depicting the Residential Building of the City of Vienna, appears in March in Austria. Designs the Luna-Luna poster for André Heller. Designs the poster and redisigns the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels for Europalia. Drafts a new design for the Church of St. Barbara in Bärnbach, Styria, and plans a Children's Day-care Centre in Heddernheim, Frankfurt. | ||
| 1988 | At the invitation of the Mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, he takes on the task of redesigning Vienna's Spittelau District Heating Plant. Teaches at the International Summer-Academy in Salzburg (Human Architecture in Harmony with Nature with Efthymios Warlamis and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt. Awarded the Golden Medal of Honour of the City of Vienna and the Golden Medal of Honour of the State of Styria. | ||
| 1989 | Builds his Hügelwiesenland In the Meadow Hills (Rolling Hills) model. | ||
| 1990 | Work on architectural realisations: KunstHausWien; Motorway-Restaurant Bad Fischau; AGIP Service Station Vienna; HBW Incinerator Spittelau Vienna; In the Meadows, Bad Soden, Germany; Village Shopping Mall, Vienna; Textile Factory Muntlix, Vorarlberg; Winery Napa Valley, California. |
| 1991 | Completion of KunstHausWien, opening on April, 9. Concept and development of architectural projects: the Thermal Village Blumau, Styria, for Rogner Austria, which is based on Hundertwasser's Rolling Hills. Town planning for Griffen, Carinthia, Austria. Housing comples Living beneath the Rain Tower in Plochingen, Germany. Presentation of the Hundertwasser Art Jeton designed for Casino Austria. |
934 COUNTDOWN 21ST CENTURY MONUMENT FOR TBS
Tokio, 1992 
BOEING B 757 CONDOR, Airplane design, 1995
MS VINDOBONA
Ship design, Vienna, 1995-1996 
HOHE-HAINE (HIGH GROVES) DRESDEN
Architecture model, 1998 
686A SUBMERSION OF ATLANTIS
Mural for Orient Station of the Metropolitan Subway Lisbon, 1996-1998 |
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| 1992 | Designs 4 telephone cards for the Austrian Postal Service and a postage stamp commemorating the European Council Summit in Vienna 1993. In Tokyo Hundertwasser's 21st Century Clock Monument is installed. The Tokyo Braodcasting System broadcasts a TV documentary on Hundertwasser's architecture and his ecological commitment. | ||
| 1993 | Work on the Hundertwasser-Bible project. | ||
| 1994 | Involvement in the campaign opposing Austria's joining the European Union. | ||
| 1995 | Works on Blumau Hot Springs Village. Redesign of Martin-Luther-Grammar School in Wittenberg, Germany. Design for the exterior of a Boeing B 757 for the German Condor airline, rejected. | ||
| 1996 | Unveiling of the Danube ship, MS Vindobona, redesigned by Hundertwasser. Awarded the Tourism Prize of Viennese Industry 1996. | ||
| 1997 | Presentation of the architectural project Die Wald-Spirale von Darmstadt. Exhibition of stamp designs, graphic work and architecture models at the Philatelia in Cologne. Awarded the "Grand Prix of German philately". Works on 366 individual book cover designs for Bertelsmann Book Club. Inauguration of the Rogner Thermal Bath in Blumau, Styria. Design and model of the architecture project MOP for the city of Osaka, Japan, and Hoch-Wiesen for Dresden, Germany. Architectural design and model for a farmers's market in Altenrhein, Switzerland. | ||
| 1998 | Retrospective museum exhibition at the Institute Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany. The Submersion of Atlantis, a ceramic-mural is installed at Oriente station in Lisbon. Supports an ecological project for the afforestation of the desert in Israel with his poster Among trees you feel at home. | ||
| 1999 | Hundertwasser lives and works in New Zealand. Architectural projects: Sludge Center, Osaka; The Green Citadel of Magdeburg and Uelzen Railroad Station, Germany. Reconstruction work for the new Kawakawa Public Toilet, New Zealand. Rejuvenation treatment for the ship Regentag. Designs the layout and book covers for his oeuvre raisonné books. |
The tulip tree growing on Hundertwasser's grave, 2008
Photo: Richard Smart |
2000 | Architectural projects for Teneriffa and Dillingen/Saar, Germany. Dies on Saturday, February, 19, in the Pacific, on board of Queen Elizabeth II 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. |
