Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Galerie Arditti, Paris
Carl-Axel Fockler, Halmstad
Acquired by the present owner in the late 1970s

Venice, Austrian Pavilion, XXXI Biennial Internazionale dell'Arte, 1962
Rome, Galleria La Medusa, Hundertwasser - Prima Mostra Personnale a Roma, 1962
Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft (and travelling), Hundertwasser, 1964-1965, pp. 123 & 202, illustrated in colour 
Berkeley, California, University Art Museum (and travelling), Hundertwasser, 1968-1969, p. 105, no. 54, illustrated in colour

Metro, Milan, 1964, illustrated
Exhibition Catalogue, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Hundertwasser, 1964, no. 97
Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts, Hundertwasser, 1965, p. 43, no. 110, illustrated in colour
Welt der Arbeit, Vienna, October 1965, illustrated
Mizue, Tokyo, August 1969, illustrated
Gunnar Sandberg, Kunst och Musik Genom Tiderna Arne Aulin, XXXX 1967, illustrated on the cover in colour
Manfred Bockelmann ed., Hundertwasser Regentag, Munich 1972, pp. 25 & 84, illustrated in colour
Andrea Christa Fürst, Hundertwasser Catalogue Raisonné, Vol II, Vienna 2002, p. 441, no. 532, illustrated in colour

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'Lions are yellow and and come from where the desert and Asia begin, where the Byzantine blood of the great power, Venice, originates.'
(The artist cited in: Andrea Christa Fürst, Hundertwasser Catalogue Raisonné, Vol II, Vienna 2002, p. 440)

Executed in 1962 for the Austrian Pavilion of the XXXI Venice Biennale, Friedensreich Hundertwasser's extraordinary painting, The Lion of Venice, is a striking example of his highly original visual vocabulary. Using a palette dominated by brilliant gold, yellow, orange and red, cut through with their complimentaries, blue and green, Hundertwasser's Lion is composed from a spiralling organic vortex, the curving contours of the Lion's body wrapping round the confines of the picture plane.

 

Hundertwasser's astonishingly varied pursuits included philosophy, design, environmentalism and architecture, as well as painting and drawing. Fascinated by spirals and repelled by straight lines, Hundertwasser's inventive pictorial language also informed his design, where his biomorphic buildings recall Antoni Guadí's sinuous forms and decorative use of tile. With his painting, Hundertwasser was equally pioneering, developing his own oils, watercolours, temperas and varnishes to create works which shimmer with unique combinations of colours and textures. Harnessing simple supports, including found boards, wrapping paper and canvases sewn from hemp, Hundertwasser tirelessly experimented with materials, eschewing traditional modes of construction and representation.

 

In the present work, Hunderwasser's obsession with the dynamism and symbolism of the spiral is perfectly embodied. He saw the spiral as representing the cyclical nature of life, a circle with no end, a transforming entity which echoes man's life on earth. He said of the spiral 'We move in circles, but we never come back to the same point. The circle is not closed.' The spiral for Hundertwasser has swellings and points of varying thickness and thinness, flowing around obstacles in organic meanderings of form. In The Lion of Venice, the spiral takes the shape of the winged lion of St Mark, the symbol of the city, of the Biennale itself, and an animal associated with protection, strength and power. The radiant colours, uniquely schematised composition and iconic subject reveal Hunderwasser's profound engagement with his impending exhibition at the Venice Biennale and embody the city's enduring inspiration for artists throughout the ages.