Hundertwasser
Biography Art History Modern Art Architecture Collectible Art Books Environmental Design Counter-Culture Studies
Hardcover first English-language monograph on Friedensreich Hundertwasser, issued in 1983 and long out of print, is the essential visual introduction to Austria’s most colorful modernist. Werner Hofmann’s authoritative text walks readers through the painter-architect’s spiral motifs, “vegetative” façades, and refusal of the straight line, while 120 full-page plates reproduce the early ecstatic watercolors, the iconic 50s–60s oils, and the first models of the Hundertwasserhaus. Because the artist tightly controlled later reproduction rights, these high-resolution images—printed on heavy matte art stock—remain the sharpest, most faithful record of his saturated palettes and metallic leaf overlays available to collectors.
Beyond a picture book, the volume positions Hundertwasser within wider 20th-century art theory, comparing his ecological mysticism to Bauhaus rigor and Viennese Actionist provocation. Hofmann, then director of Hamburg’s Kunsthalle, unpacks the philosophy of “transautomatism” and shows how the artist’s architectural fantasies grew directly out of his pictorial experiments. Young adults discovering protest art, as well as seasoned antiquarian buyers, gain a concise road map that links the 1960s counter-culture to sustainable design decades ahead of its time.
This copy is clean, tight, and unmarked—no ex-library stamps, inscriptions, or dog-eared leaves—making it an ideal gift copy or investment piece. Light surface scuffs and a tiny spine dent are noted for accuracy, yet the laminated jacket still glows with Hundertwasser’s own rainbow color scheme. As auction prices for the artist’s 1970s catalogues raisonnés and signed prints continue to climb, locating a well-preserved 1983 English hardcover under one hundred dollars delivers both shelf presence and future appreciation potential.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now