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When I was 21 I did the backpacking through Europe thing that us Australians do, and while in Venice, my travelling companions and I decided to take a ferry to the island of Giudecca.
There, in a restaurant, we happened to meet New Zealand painter Thomas Lauterbach and Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), who’s work you probably recognise, even if you do not know his name. (They helped us to order after catching us struggling to communicate with our Italian waiter.) He is probably most famous for his incredible block of flats in Vienna, known as Hundertwasserhaus.
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Once a tame English garden, Hundertwasser had let it run free, its knotted undergrowth a wild mass of nettles and brambles, a site for his ecological experiments, including humus toilets. I have since discovered that Hundertwasser’s decision to let the garden become overgrown was controversial, as you can read here if interested.
The garden has a fascinating history — apparently a place that countless writers (Maeterlinck, Proust, Rilke, James) visited and where ‘Alexandra of Greece’ (otherwise known as the Queen of Yugoslavia) famously went mad. The giardino edino, as the estate is known in Venice, was also the location of a famous quarrel between an unknown American and a young school friend of Cocteau called Raymond Laurent, which climaxed with Laurent committing suicide on the steps of the Salute church.
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He spent much of his later life living in New Zealand, on a rural property in the Bay of Islands, where he fought hard for the right to be buried in his garden of the Happy Dead, under a tulip tree.
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I think Hundertwasser is constantly underestimated — mostly, it seems, because he was considered an exhibitionist and blatant self-promoter. (He was a nudist for a time a la Lennon, in the name of peace.)
But I, personally, feel blessed to have met him.
14 comments:
Amazing! Thanks for sharing that. I visited Hundertwasserhaus once, and think about it all the time.
I am Damon's raging jealousy.
Wow, what a privilege! Its always such a wonderful thing to meet the human being behind such great work.
Oh I am quite jealous. I love his work and often introduce the kids in my art classes to his wonderful houses. They have come up with some fantastic magical art works as a result. My school also has a sustainability focus so it blends beautifully.
What a wonderful story... I rather like hundertwasser house, I had a lovely time visiting his buildings in Vienna and engaging with his work... fabulous that you met him
Oh. I was talking about the garden...
(As intriguing as Hundertwasser is.)
I guessed that, Damon. Ah, to be a garden stomped on by Henry James, hey?...
wow, i don't blame you for feeling blessed! that would've been so interesting to meet him. vienna = art heaven.
i'm surprised too that i didn't actually wonder who you were referring to {strange i think}.
{ooops, wrote this hours ago before leaving the house then forgot to do the word verification, so it didn't publish. thanks for your comment :) }
dear Rachel,
What a keep sake memory! How extraordinary...helping you to order,and taking you to visit his garden!!
I am so curious to read about the... male European artist in the conclusion of your book!!
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He sounds very interesting. It's great when the personality of the artist matches the art, isn't it?
What a fabulous story - when I was at school my art teacher showed us a doco on Hundertwasser - I loved how he said the rain made colours more beautiful
wow - i have a tiny little book by Hundertwasser and for a long time didn't know who he was - just thought he was some kind of outsider artist - the internet can be handy thing ... but I didn't know about roof gardens. Lucky you! I have to go and reread TDH now...
Thanks everyone for those comments. I keep thinking I should write a more detailed article about meeting Hundertwasser--about the fact that he played footsies with us under the restaurant table (yep, plenty of cheek), about his numerous sets of wooden clogs beside his pot-belly stove, and the fact that he chose to live in the workers' cottage rather than the stately home or modern structure that also existed on the property. About his studio with Shiele reproductions and pages ripped from girlie magazines stuck around the walls, about his horror that we were staying in a convent dorm beneath a giant, tortured image of a dying Jesus nailed to the cross above our beds... These are the lovely details I remember.
Oh I only just finished your book and was very curious about who the mysterious artist was. I did think that it must be something that you wanted to keep private though, since you introduce him in the way you do. Perhaps a similar feeling has been behind the absence of inquiries?
I loved the book, btw, and plan to write a review soon... once I can find the time while juggling my toddler and a PhD...
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