Hundertwasser's comment on the work

I like the house very much and the spiral very much. This is the first time I combined both so closely. I was astonished myself how well spiral and house suit each other. I called the picture "The Neighbours". Since the spiral is a symbol of the sun to me and the house a symbol of the moon, I put gold in the middle of the spiral and painted a silver window in the middle of the house. Here I painted a spiral in complementary colours for the first time. That is: beginning in the middle I painted a contrast of red and green. As the red spiral devolves outward, it slowly turns violet and blue and green, and for this line I always chose the proper complementary colour. I often sign the pictures at their various corners, to indicate clearly that they can be hung in different ways. This always makes for complications and arguments when hanging the pictures for exhibitions when I'm not on hand, because nobody knows how the picture is supposed to be hung, because it is signed on various sides. I don't paint pictures the way others do, on an easel; I paint them lying horizontally on a table and often by rotating them around their own midpoint. In Japan, for instance, where it is so complicated to stand up and sit down, I had a system for painting large pictures: I put a book on the table on which the picture could be spun like a disk. As far as the arm could reach toward the middle of the picture I could have a command of the picture and paint. I could not really see the picture until it was finished - when I had a chance to stand up and set it up vertically. That is why my pictures viewed from above often go from top to bottom or bottom to top - like the constellations (from: Hundertwasser, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing, 1964 and ed. 1973, p. 24)

551
DIE NACHBARN I - SPIRALSONNE UND MONDHAUS
THE NEIGHBOURS I - SPIRAL SUN AND MOON-HOUSE

Watercolour
La Picaudière, 1963
Painted at La Picaudière, January 1963
300 mm x 450 mm
Watercolour on wrapping paper, primed with chalk and PV
Collection Yuko Ikewada-Toyoda, Japan

  • Travelling exhibition 1964/65:
  • Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964
  • Kunsthalle Bern, 1964
  • Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, 1964
  • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1964
  • Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1965
  • Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1965
  • *
  • Hammerlunds Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1965
  • Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, 2010/11
  • KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2011
  • Kunsthalle Bremen, 2012/13
  • KunstHausWien, Vienna, March 22, 2013 - January 2014
  • ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, Denmark, 2014
  • Quartier Libre SIG, Geneva, 2015/2016
  • Kunstmuseum am Inselbahnhof, Lindau, 2019
  • W. Schmied, Hundertwasser, Feldafing, 1964 and ed. 1973, pp. 25 (c), 45
  • W. Schmied, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2000, Vol. I, pp. 74, 179, 183 (c), 194
  • A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 452/453 (and c)
  • Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964, pp. 55 (c), 206
  • Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1964, cat. 104
  • Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1965, cat. 116, p. 51 (c)
  • Hammerlunds Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1965, cat. 9 (c)
  • Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon, 2001, pp. 15 (c), 43
  • Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, 2010/11, pp. 96-97 (and c), 227
  • HW-Die Kunst des grünen Weges, KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2011, pp. 90 (c), 214
  • Gegen den Strich. Werke 1949-1970, Kunsthalle Bremen, 2012/13, pp. 216 (c), 256
  • Hundertwasser, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, 2014, p. 75 (c)
  • Hundertwasser - Traumfänger einer schöneren Welt, Kunstmuseum am Inselbahnhof, Lindau, 2019, pp. 52-53 (and c)
  • Bayerischer Schulbuchverlag (ed.), Lesen, Munich, 1970, p. 17 (b)
  • S. Wille, Träume sind große Taten, Vienna, 1993, p. 35 (c)
  • I. Hargittai / M. Hargittai, Symmetry, Bolinas, 1994, p. 150 (b)
  • Visitor Guide / Dossier de Visite, Quartier Libre SIG, Geneva, 2015, p. 9 (c)
  • Magnum, no. 51 (c), Cologne, Dec. 1963, p. 27 (b)
  • Panderma, no. 6, Basel, 1964, p. 13 (insert Galerie Änne Abels, b)
  • Kunst Kultur, no. 3, Oslo, 1965, p. 133 (b)
  • Scope RTL 87, Luxembourg, 1987, p. 111 (c)
  • Postcard, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing, 1964 (repr.)
  • Art Calender 1974, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing (February, 25,7 x 39,8 cm)
  • Beer-coaster, Vienna, 1976 (detail, discontinued)
  • Postcard, Gruener Janura AG, Glarus, 2001
  • Hundertwasser 2004 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne
  • 2004 Hundertwasser Diary Jahrbuch, Borer & Wörner, Zug