Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born in Vienna as Friedrich Stowasser on 15 December 1928. In 1949 he changed his name: He translated the syllable “Sto”, meaning “hundred” in several Slavic languages, and called himself “Hundertwasser” thereafter. In 1961, while in Japan, he also changed his first name so it could be more easily translated into Japanese and named himself “Friedensreich”. In 1949 Hundertwasser started to travel. His trips to Italy, France and North Africa influenced his development as an artist and he discovered his own completely original style. In 1953 he first used the spiral that soon became the dominant element in his paintings. Hundertwasser described his paintings as “vegetative”; his images evolved slowly and seemed to grow organically.
Hundertwasser was innovative in many printing techniques: lithography, screen printing, etching and woodcuts, and others. He was the first European painter whose blocks were carved and whose works were printed by Japanese masters. But above all, he created editions of prints, in which every single sheet was unique – as varied as the leaves of a tree. Hundertwasser’s interest in architecture began in the early 1950s and he dedicated himself to promoting more human- and nature-friendly buildings. Architectural projects from the early 1980s onwards gave him the opportunity to realize these ideas. Hundertwasser’s commitment to ecology and the environment was closely linked to his philosophy of a nature-friendly architecture. He campaigned for the protection of our natural environment and called for a life in harmony with the laws of nature. Hundertwasser died of a heart attack on board of the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the Pacific Ocean on 19 February 2000. He was buried on his land in New Zealand.
