404
LE MUR
DIE MAUER
THE WALL
IL MURO
La Picaudière, 1959
Painted at La Picaudière, February 1959, in the "Nautilus"
1310 mm x 1000 mm
Mixed media: oil and egg tempera on wrapping paper, primed with chalk, zinc white and fish glue; mounted on canvas
Museu de Arte Contemporanea da USP, São Paulo
This painting won the Sambra-Price (Award) at the 5th São Paulo Biennial in 1959.
"With the thermometer registering -20 degrees Celsius, he was living in the smallest room La Picaudière had to offer, the pantry, because the cost of heating would otherwise have been too inordinate. The space was sufficient for his bed and no more. He kept the wall, in his eyes an animate being, under observation. To him it became a constantly changing, vibrant organic entity bounded by four windows."
(from: Koschatzky, Walter: Friedensreich Hundertwasser, The complete graphic work 1951-1986, New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1986, p. 172)
- 31st Venice Biennial, 1962
- Secession, Vienna, 1981
- Caixa Cultural Brasília and Salvador, 2009
- 5th São Paulo Biennial, 1959
- W. Schmied, Hundertwasser, Salzburg, 1974, pl. 65 (c), p. 316
- A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 375/376 (and c)
- V. Bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, 1959, cat. 24
- XXXI. Biennale di Venezia, Austria, 1962, cat. 30
- Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964, p. 180
- Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon, 2001, p. 39
- Caixa Cultural Brasília and Salvador, 2009 (c)
- HW-Die Kunst des grünen Weges, KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2011, pp. 92 (c), 214
- Kindlers Malerei Lexikon, Munich, 1976, p. 281 (b)
- Die Kunst und das schöne Heim, no. 12, Sep. 1962, Munich, p. 499 (b)
- Hundertwasser 2004 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne (and reprints)
- Hundertwasser 2012 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne (and reprints)
Hundertwasser's comment on the work
It was way below freezing, I had retreated to the smalles room of all, a pantry, more like a dungeon, about two by two meters and one meter eighty high, with a stove. The window was the size of a sheet of typing paper. It was warm in there, and I painted this picture, which could hardly be got through the door to the main room, where it was ice cold, like everywhere else. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 376)