Hundertwasser's comment on the work

The longing for Venice: a part of my homeland ("Heimat"). The antirational city is a dream turned to stone. Later I tried to build Venice everywhere myself. If one could put all my houses in one place, the result would be something like Venice - a strangely different, dunkelbunt (dark-bright) Venice. And yet: a father travels with his son to Venice to show him the wondrous city he had always told him about. The boy sees the first road sign that says Venice and says "Look, Dad, we're in Venice!" But what he sees is the suburb, the industrial zone of Mestre-Marghera. The story is an admonition. Venice can be anywhere, if only the artists and architects assume responsibility for industrial buildings, where people are, too, after all, and where creation should be. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 214)

122
VENEDIG PONTE RIALTO
Venice, Rialto Bridge

Watercolour
Hofgastein, 1951
Painted in Hofgastein, July 1951in the company of his mother
490 mm x 640 mm
Watercolour on wrapping paper, primed with chalk, zinc white and fish glue
  • Art-Club, Vienna, 1952
  • Travelling exhibtion 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
  • Künstlerhaus, Vienna, 1951
  • W. Schmied, Hundertwasser, Salzburg, 1974, pl. 16 (c), p. 310
  • Hundertwasser Postcardbook: Lost and Stolen Pictures, Cologne, 1995 (c)
  • A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 214/215 (and c)
  • G. Illetschko, Planet Hundertwasser, Munich, 2012, p. 36 (c)
  • Leaflet: Art Club, Vienna, 1952, cat. 25
  • Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964, p. 109
  • Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1964, cat. 7
  • Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1965, cat. 12
  • HW-Die Kunst des grünen Weges, KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2011, pp. 96 (c), 212
  • Westermanns Monatshefte, no. 9, Sept. 1974, Braunschweig, p. 24 (c)
  • Postcards, Vienna, 1951 (b)