BIOGRAPHY

FRIEDENSREICH HUNDERTWASSER (1928-2000)

1928	Born in Vienna on December 15th as Friedrich Stowasser.
1938	Forced to move to his aunt’s and grandmother’s home on Obere Donaustraße after Austria’s annexation to the Third Reich.
1943	69 Jewish members of his family are deported and murdered.
1948	A-Levels. In Vienna he spends three months at the Academy of Fine Arts.
1949	Changes his last name to Hundertwasser. Begins his extensive travels and develops his unique style.
1952	First exhibition at Art Club, Vienna.
1953	He paints his first spiral.
1954	First exhibition in Paris at Paul Facchetti Studio. Develops the theory of Transautomatism and begins to numerate his paintings.
1955	Exhibition at Carlo Cadazzo’s Galleria del Naviglio, Milan.
1956	Publishes the paper La visibilité de la création transautomatique in Paris in the French magazines Cimaise and Phases.
1957	In Paris he publishes the Grammar of Seeing.
1958	Reads out his Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture during a congress in the Seckau Abbey, Austria.
1959	With Ernst Fuchs and Arnulf Rainer he founds the Pintorarium, an academy off all creative fields of art. As a guest lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg he draws the Endless Line with Bazon Brock and Herbert Schuldt.
1961	Visits Japan. Successful exhibition at the Tokyo Gallery.
1962	Marriage with Yuko Ikewada (annulment in 1966). Paints in a studio on the island of Giudecca, Venice. Very successful retrospective at the Venice Biennial.
1964	Great retrospective with Œuvre catalogue at the Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover.
1966	Ferry Radax produces the first documentary film about Hundertwasser Unhappy in love
1967	First nude speech in Munich on The Right to a Third Skin.
1968- 1972	In Venice he alters his old wooden ship San Giuseppe T and renames it Regentag (Rainy Day).
1968	Second nude speech and reading of his Manifesto Loose from Loos, a boycott against architecture in Vienna.
1969	Various exhibitions in American museums.
1971	Lives and works on board his ship Regentag in the Venice lagoon. He works on the Poster for the Olympic Games in Munich.
1970- 1972	Collaboration with Peter Schamoni for the documentary film Hundertwasser Regentag. In Lengmoos, Germany he works on his print portfolio Regentag.
1972	Friendship with Joram Harel. On the TV show Wünsch Dir was (Make a Wish) he rallies for planting trees on roofs and individual façade designs. Publishes the manifesto Your Window Right – Your Tree Duty
1973	First portfolio with Japanese woodcuts: Nana Hyaku Mizu. Hundertwasser is the first European painter whose works are carved in wood by Japanese masters. He participates in the Milan Triennial, where about 15 "tree tenants" are planted in the Via Manzoni. Touring exhibition in New Zealand.
1975	Retrospective exhibition at Haus der Kunst, Munich. Manifesto The Humus Toilet is published. Creates the postage stamp Spiral Tree for Austria and therewith commences the postage stamp series Modern Art in Austria (engraved by Wolfgang Seidel). Begins a world-touring exhibition in the Museé d’art moderne de la ville Paris that stops in 27 countries and 43 museums until 1983. At the Albertina, Vienna he begins the world touring exhibition about his graphic œuvre. Until 1992 it tours through 15 countries and more than 80 museums and galleries. He crosses the Atlantic on his ship Regentag and sails, passing the Caribbean and the Panama Canal, to the Pacific.
1978	In Venice he designs the Peace Flag for the Holy Land showing a green Arabic half moon and a blue Star of David on white background and publishes his Peace Manifesto.
1979	The Austrian National Printing Plant prints three of his stamps for the Republic of Senegal. In Pfäffikon, at Lake Zurich, Hundertwasser reads his manifesto The Sacred Shit. The touring exhibition Hundertwasser is Painting with 40 new works begins in New York, followed by Tokyo, Hamburg, Oslo, Paris, London and Vienna.
1980	During the Hundertwasser Day in Washington, D.C. several trees are planted on Judiciary Square on November 18th. He argues for ecology, a more human and nature friendly architecture and against nuclear energy, in the US-Senate, the Corcoran Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Berlin and at the Technical Universities of Vienna and Oslo.
1981	He is awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize. Appointment to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He writes the Guidelines for the Hundertwasser Master School.
1983	Designs six different postage stamps for the United Nations and founds a civil committee for the maintenance of the old post office in Kawakawa, New Zealand. In Spinea, near Venice, he works on Homo Humus How Do You Do in 10,002 different versions. Creates the Koru Flag for New Zealand.
1984	He is actively involved in the campaign to save the Hainburg wetlands in Austria.
1985	First collaboration with the architect Peter Pelikan. He works the whole year at the construction site of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna, which receives 70,000 visitors on its Open Day.
1986	Designs the Uluru - Down Under Flag for Australia. Cover design for Brockhaus encyclopaedia.
1987	Redesign of St. Barbara’s Church in Bärnbach, in Styria, Austria. Creates a design for the Kindergarten in Frankfurt-Heddernheim, Germany.
1988	Redesign of the Austrian licence numbers. He argues to maintain the black registration plates.
1989	Creates the architecture model In the Meadow Hills.
1990	Works on numerous architecture projects. Austria: KunstHausWien, District heating plant Spittelau and the Shopping Centre Kalke-Village in Vienna; Motorway Restaurant Bad Fischau; Textile Factory in Muntlix, Vorarlberg; Germany: In the meadows, Bad Soden; USA: Winery Napa Valley, California.
1991	Opening KunstHausWien on April 9th. Hundertwasser works on several architecture projects; Austria: Rogner-Bad Blumau in Styria which is based on Hundertwasser’s model Rolling Hills; Germany: Inner courtyard of an apartment house in Plochingen.
1992	Construction of the Countdown 21st Century Clock Monument in Tokyo.
1993	Composes a manifesto and argues against Austria’s joining the European Union.
1995	Works on the illustrations for the Hundertwasser Bible.
1996	Exhibition at the Municipal Museum Brunswick, Germany. Launching of the MS Vindobona in Vienna, a Hundertwasser redesigned Danube ship.
1997	Drafts designs and plans for several architectural projects; Germany: Forest Spiral of Darmstadt; Hohe-Haine (High Groves) Dresden; Japan: Incineration Plant, Osaka; Switzerland: Altenrhein Indoor Market. Initiation of the reconstruction of grammar school Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany.
1998	Museum retrospective at Mathildenhöhe (museum and artists’ colony) in Darmstadt, Germany and in Japan. Architecture project: Sakishima Pump Station in Osaka, Japan. Works on the portfolio La Giudecca Colorata.
1999	Several architectural projects: Germany: Environmental Railway Station, Uelzen; Ronald McDonald House, Essen; THE GREEN CITADEL® OF MAGDEBURG; Japan: Maishima Sludge Centre, Osaka. Hundertwasser lives and works in New Zealand, he renovates the Regentag and participates in the construction of the Kawakawa Public Toilet, which was redesigned by him. He conceptualises the layout for his Catalogue Raisonné, designs the cover for it and defines the measurements of the reproductions of his works. Museum exhibitions in Japan regarding his architectural works.
2000	He writes down commentaries on his works for the Œuvre Catalogue and works on his architecture projects for Tenerife, Spain and Dillingen/Saar, Germany.
	Hundertwasser dies of heart failure on February 19th aboard the Queen Elizabeth II crossing the Pacific. He is buried on his property in New Zealand under a tulip tree in the Garden of the Happy Dead in harmony with nature.