Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Vintage Europalia 87 Osterreich Metal Foil Print Offset Lithograph Poster, 1987

Europalia 87 Oesterreich (Austria) by Friedrich Hundertwasser – original vintage poster – offset lithograph with metal foil insets fine art print
Copyright by Gruener Janura AG, Glarus/ Switzerland. Printed in Germany.
Europalia 87 Oesterreich 16 Sept – 16 Dec Festival des Arts en Belgique.

Original poster designed by Hundertwasser, printed with 9-colour offset lithographic process, Gold and Silver metal foil insets.
Friedensreich Fritz Hundertwasser was born in Vienna in 1928 as Friedrich Stowasser. He initially gained acclaim for his paintings, but is currently more renowned for his unique architectural stylings. His revolutionary ecological stands with regard to architecture have earned him the nickname Architecture­ Healer. His works have been used for flags and stamps, coins and posters, schools and churches. The galerie Peithner­ Lichtenfels showed his work. Artists present at the opening exhibition included Adolf Frohner, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Jürgen Messensee and Hans Staudacher. Jürgen Messensees work was just starting to be shown around this time and the first picture we sold was a Messensee. Artists shown in the apartment­gallery included the likes of Kurt Absolon, Wander Bertoni, Josef Dobrowsky, Gustav Hessing, Alfred Hrdlicka, Heinrich Jungnickel, Karl Korab, Kurt Moldovan, Sergius Pauser, Josef Pillhofer, Arnulf Rainer, Fritz Wotruba and Franz von Zülow. The Vienna school was represented by Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs and Anton Lehmden and later Rudolf Hausner. In 1963 the gallery moved into Seilergasse in the first district of Vienna. The new space opened with Karl Korabs first solo show. During this time a close partnership developed with the Aoki Gallery in Tokyo Other artists who exhibited in the gallery at this time included Hubert Aratym, Bele Bachem, Salvador Dali, Josef Dobrowsky, Greta Freist, Ernst Fuchs, Albert Paris Gütersloh, David Hamilton, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Herzig, Fritz von Herzmanovsky ­Orlando, Alfred Hrdlicka, Heinrich Jungnickel, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Anton Lehmden, Piet Mondrian, Karl Plattner, Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern, Erhard Stöbe, Ferdinand Stransky and Robert Zeppel­Sperl. Numerous exhibitions of Hundertwasser’s paintings have been mounted, including one ­man shows at the Art Club, Vienna (1952); Studio Paul Facchetti, Paris, Tokyo Gallery (1961); Austrian Pavilion, Biennale, Venice (1962); Kestner­Gesellschaft, Hannover (1966); University of California, Berkeley (1968); Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand (1973); and a retrospective at the Haus der Kunst, Munich. In 1957 Hundertwasser was awarded the Prix du Syndicat d’Initiative, Première Bordeaux (France) Biennale, and in 1959 the Sanbra Prize at the Fifth São Paulo (Brazil) Biennale. That same year he assumed a guest lectureship in Hamburg at the Kunsthochschule der Freien und Hansestadt, only to be asked to leave his post because he performed the endless line, a ten mile, two days and nights spiral. He was also awarded the Mainichi Prize at the Sixth International Art Exhibition, Tokyo, in 1961. The artist’s public lectures and manifestations include: Art Is Always Changing (Salzburg, 1949); My Aspiration: To Free Myself from the Universal Bluff of our Civilization (Vienna, 1952); Mouldiness Manifesto: Against Rationalism in Architecture (Austria and Germany, 1958) Les Ortilles (Paris, 1959); Naked Speech (Munich, 1968); Intensive Naked Demonstration (Vienna, 1968); and Your right to windows ­ your duty to the trees (1972). He remains sui generis, although his architectural work is comparable to Antoni Gaudí in its biomorphic forms and use of tile. He was inspired by the works of Egon Schiele from an early date, and his style was often compared to that of Gustav Klimt. He was fascinated with spirals, and called straight lines “the devil’s tools”. He called his theory of art transautomatism, based on Surrealist automatism, but focusing on the experience of the viewer, rather than the artist.