Hundertwasser's comment on the work

The sunflowers are growing out of the fragmented city. The scraps of French wrapping paper are laid meticulously on top of one another to make the picture. Sunflowers are so simple that anybody can paint them. The buildings in the city are transparent. Things that people allow to grow irregularly and creatively can well be compared to what nature builds. Man and his buildings are small and stand in awe of the large suns of the flowers. Here the proportions between natural and man-made objects are correct.(from: Hundertwasser Architecture, Cologne, 1997, p.10) I wanted to unite Schiele (Krumau) and Van Gogh (sunflowers) - architecture and nature. Thrown-away, torn wrapping paper was holy to me. That is not any old painting, but one which determined my life, and at that one I painted in Paris. Unfortunately it was stolen and has since disappeared. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 176)