Das Schiff Regentag
Open Image Gallery The Ship Regentag
Fotograf unbekannt
Hundertwasser Archive
In 1968 Hundertwasser acquired the Sicilian-Tunisian transport ship "San Giuseppe T", built in 1910, in Palermo. This was followed by seven years of ship conversion (1968-1974) in shipyards in Palermo, Pellestrina, Portegrandi, Malcontenta, Portoferraio, La Goulette and Malta. He included the ship in his catalogue raisonné under the work number 703 and named it Regentag.
The ship Regentag symbolises an important period in Hundertwasser's life; he lived and painted on her for ten years. It was his home, his country, his headquarters.
Hundertwasser had been preoccupied with ships since his childhood and dreamt up ships in his paintings: the "singing steamers", the "mouth boats", portholes, steam chimneys and the ship Regentag appear again and again in his pictures. His enthusiasm for navigating and manoeuvring a ship was probably also fuelled by an episode as a sailor when he signed on to the Estonian ship SS Bauta for the crossing from Söderhamn to Hull in 1956.
After sea trials in the Mediterranean, the Regentag sailed from Venice via Gibraltar, Panama and Tahiti to New Zealand under Captain Horst Wächter between 1975 and 1976. Hundertwasser himself was captain on board in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean and on the final leg Tahiti - Auckland - Bay of Islands.
In the South Pacific Ocean, the Regentag was under the care of Captain Andrew Fagan and Richard Smart from 1976 to 2004.
In 1999, Hundertwasser had the wooden ship encased in ferrocement, the wheelhouse renovated and the water line tiled.
After Hundertwasser's death, the Regentag was transferred to Europe by freight in 2004 on the initiative of Tulln mayor Willi Stift. On the occasion of a Hundertwasser exhibition at the Minorite Monastery in Tulln, Lower Austria, it was anchored on the Danube and made accessible to visitors.
On 11 August 2015, the Regentag was placed under monument protection by the Republic of Austria.
In 2017, the Hundertwasser Foundation commissioned an expert report to determine the state of preservation. Dipl. Ing. Adolf Heidrich, civil engineer for ship technology, found that mould and sponge growth had occurred as a result of ventilation problems and water ingress, as well as numerous shrinkage cracks and splits in the wood. The moisture in the wood made extensive renovation measures necessary, which were tackled by boat builder Tobias van Kooij in September 2018. The Regentag was completely refurbished inside and out by 2024.
Hundertwasser's ship Regentag is part of the international history of seafaring and has been publicised worldwide. It is a ship's architecture designed in a unique way and is probably unrivalled as the work of a visual artist. As an essential part of Hundertwasser's life and work, the ship has an important function.