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Art, Design and Architecture in Vienna: The Visionary World of Friedensreich Hundertwasser By
Arnie Greenberg (The architecture of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, as seen above, may look like Gaudi of Spain, but the differences are too many). When I saw this man's work in Vienna, I couldn't believe how excitingly different it was. I started comparing him to Spain's Gaudi, but the differences were too many. I first saw the work in May, and I have to admit it was a first for me. Maybe I should get out more. Hundertwasser was an artist, a designer, an architect and a painter. But he was also a man with a vision. His building designs alone have attracted millions of people because of his unusual ideas. I roamed around the KunstHousWein, in Vienna's 30th district, drawn at first to an exhibit of the works of Niki de Saint Phalle. I found her and Hundertwasser at the same time. It was one of the most enjoyable, if not different, mornings I spent in Austria. Start with the idea that man has three skins. For Hundertwasser it was his skin, his clothing and walls of buildings. It was that 'third skin' that this amazing man chose to redesign. Windows, he said, are a bridge between the inside and out. The third skin is interspersed with windows as the skin has pores. "The straight line uncreative and 'godless' created by men of bad conscience working with straight-edged rulers" In an attempt to 'heal' architecture, Hundertwasser added rounded pillars, different-sized windows, turrets and raw stones with frenetic splashes of color. His result is a change in the way we see buildings, the world and ourselves. No, he was no quack. Different, perhaps, but this man tried to recreate 'paradise.' The attempt can be seen in many buildings in Europe and in New Zealand, where he died in February 2000. His Museum Will Change Your View of Architecture One walk through his Viennese museum will change your opinion of what architecture should be. It changed mine. Even his concept of uneven floors that rise and fall like undulating hills becomes a symphony, a melody for the feet. "If," he said, "architects wanted to elevate man, not subdue him, they would design uneven floors to regain human balance." If all this is confusing, imagine the reaction of all of us 'unarchictectural types' who feast on one of these structures for the first time. It's like a joke, but after a while you stop laughing. I stood before the KunstHaus and drank in the color and movement. The pillars, which Hundretwasser said gave people a good feeling at the entrance, were gold, white, bright red, royal blue and mauve. They were made in Bad Ems, Germany by a 400-year-old family business. The walls were black, uneven tile and the windows painted yellow; white, smooth walls surrounded red, black and blue. There were even chequered designs over the doorways. The entrance was a helter-skelter arrangement of tile, slanting like waves. (The KunstHaus bespeaks helter-skelter arrangements and slants like waves).
A view of the rooflines offered angles and uneven lines, rooftop gardens and a gold Far Eastern turret. Trees and shrubs spilled from balconies or arched porticos. Trees, according to the designer, create oxygen. They improve the climate, bring needed moisture, and create an outside shelter. They are tenants -- an important partner of man. They are spontaneous vegetation in an anonymous and sterile city desert. They swallow noise and create quietness. The total effect of his work cannot be described. You have to see it in the KunstHaus or the incinerator/heating plant where the tall chimney was transformed with a bulbous golden ball and stark colors. The building itself, once bland and drab, is now blue and white with black splashes, yellow draped widows and a roof garden with ever-present trees. Now people line up to visit. A Spa Resort with Sod Roofs They also go to the Rogner Bad Blumen spa resort where the roofs are made of grass (sod), and the windows face courtyards. Only the frontal entrances and windows of different shapes are exposed. You have to see this or feel it to understand. This man was certainly different, and like Gaudi, he transformed the environment he worked on. On the walls of the museum's exhibition space are almost geometric paintings with tiny, colorful squares, reminding me of Klee, but going further into fantasy and decoration. They are cold, and almost stark, but they are exciting and almost futuristic. They are not popular with every visitor. It is work of 'action'. It moves. It is alive. It strikes a nerve -- and that is what the artist intended. It is still gaining acceptance and is being collected by major collections in Europe, America and Japan as well as New Zealand, where the artist lived until his death. The museum in Vienna is a happening. It will change you or turn you off, but you will not leave unmoved. It even includes the artist's designs for car license plates and international flags. I especially enjoyed his 1978 concept for a peace flag for the Holy Land, showing a blue Star of David on a field of white atop a green crescent. Discovering the 'Perfect Marriage' For me, the building had an additional draw: I was lucky to be there while the exhibit of Niki de Saint Phalle was going on. What a perfect marriage. This artist and sculptor also changed her exterior world. She, too, used new techniques, designs and materials to create new space and statements. The collection of her paintings and sculptures fit in perfectly with the Hundertwasser motif. Her Nanas surely made Hundertwasser smile. Hundertwasser brought color and a change in architecture by denouncing the straight line, the even floor and the way man saw his environment. Saint Phalle, too, was a French iconoclast who created sculpture that was more eclectic than most. I refer you to the moving sculptures next to the Pompidou Center in Paris. I refer you also to the bigger-than-life Nanna she set up in central Italy. This figure became a house where Niki lived for a time. Imagine a building in the shape of a round bulbous lady, whose entrance is in the crotch and windows in the breasts. Even that went further than Hundertwasser, whose buildings in Vienna and abroad draw people by the hundreds. The
world is changing, and these futuristic minds are showing the way. Don't leave
Vienna without a visit to the old factory that is now KunstHausWien, a museum,
gallery, environmental space, café and restaurant. Even lunch in the treed
garden is a delicious happening. IF
YOU GO... The
Incinerator/heating plant offers guided tours at: Flying Off to Vienna for Christmas Discover how people in Europe get ready for the holiday season by sampling some of the best "Christkindl" or Christmas markets in Austria. For information on getting to Vienna for the holiday season with Austrian Airlines, click here. (Click
below for more travel stories).
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