Hundertwasser's comment on the work

This painting means quite a lot to me - I am always glad when I can invent something new. It was in Sottomarina, and I was crossing a bridge, and suddenly I saw people wearing sunglasses coming towards me on bicycles, and I suddenly discovered the glasses, as if I had never seen spectacles before. For me that was the very discovery of eyeglasses. From that day on I have looked on glasses only as spirals and as something uncannily magical, as magic instruments, as it were, that one can look through, through which one sees the world differently - indeed, I think one could write books about eyeglasses. Of course glasses are also a mask which covers the eyes. For me glasses are almost worth more than the eyes themselves, that is, glasses are a counterpart to the eyes, equivalent to the eyes. And add to this the "nose-river". I always depicted noses as rivers. And something is in fact always flowing down in the nose, and since a river is blue, I always paint noses blue. Beneath it the mouth is a boat: the mouth-boat. To me mouths are like boats - by virtue of their shape. So there are three symbols in the picture: the spiral glasses, the nose-river and the mouth-boat. And then there is the symbol of the garden fence . . . What that means I don't know myself. It is also interesting that the face has been squeezed into a square. Basically I don't want to depict any human figure and human faces anymore, and this is one anyway. (from: Hundertwasser, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing, 1964 and ed. 1973, p. 32)

563
LES LUNETTES DU PETIT VISAGE
BRILLEN IN KLEINEM GESICHT
SPECTACLES IN A SMALL FACE

Mixed media
Venice, 1963
Painted in Venice, Giudecca, July 1963
335 mm x 415 mm
Mixed media: egg tempera and oil on parchment with paper border, primed with chalk and PV; mounted on jute with 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
  • *
  • Travelling exhibition 1968/69:
  • University Art Museum Berkeley, 1968
  • Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1968/69
  • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1969
  • The Arts Club of Chicago, 1969
  • The Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1969
  • The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, 1969
  • *
  • Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, 2010/11
  • W. Schmied, Hundertwasser, Feldafing, 1964 and ed. 1973, pp. 33 (c), 45
  • A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 463/464 (and c)
  • Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964, pp. 42 (c), 207
  • Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1964, cat. 110
  • Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1965, cat. 123
  • Hammerlunds Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1965, cat. 21
  • University Art Museum, Berkeley, 1968, p. 112 (c), cat. 61
  • Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, 2010/11, pp. 98-99 (and c), 227
  • W. Schurian, Kunst.Erfahrung, China, 2005, p. 363 (detail, b)
  • D'Ars Agency, June 1964, Milan, p. 114 (b)
  • Volksblatt, Feb. 28, 1965, Vienna (b)
  • Harper's Bazaar, no. 5, May 1965, St. Gallen, p. 68 (c)
  • The Daily Californian, Oct. 8, 1968 (b)
  • Postcard, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing, 1964 (repr.)
  • Art Calender Moderne Kunst 1966, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing (September/postcard size)
  • Art Galender 1972, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing (July/postcard size)
  • Art Calender Forum 1973, Forum Steinheim (January/cover)
  • Art Calender 1974, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing (October/32 x 40 cm)
  • Hundertwasser 2004 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne
  • Postcard, Gruener Janura AG, Glarus, 2004
  • Hundertwasser Calendar 2007, sanofi aventis, Vienna
  • Hundertwasser 2007, Borer & Wörner, Zug
  • Hundertwasser Jahrbuch 2007, Borer & Wörner, Zug
  • Hundertwasser Agenda, Wörner, Rutesheim, 2008
  • Hundertwasser Diary 2009, Wörner, Rutesheim
  • Hundertwasser Diary 2010, Wörner, Rutesheim
  • Hundertwasser Diary 2011, Wörner, Rutesheim
  • Calendar, Hundertwasser Art 2012, Wörner, Rutesheim
  • Hundertwasser Slim Art Calendar 2016, Wörner, Rutesheim
  • Calendar, Hundertwasser Art 2018, Wörner Verlag, Rutesheim (square size)