754
CONVERSATION WITH A TREE
GESPRÄCH MIT EINEM BAUM
CONVERSATION AVEC UN ARBRE
Opua, 1975
Painted at Bay of Islands, N.Z., Marakihau hut, September 1975 - Opua, Craig's hut, November 1975
670 mm x 400 mm
Mixed media: egg tempera, PVA, oil and tinfoil fixed with Uhu glue on hardboard, white priming
Hundertwasser once said that all he wanted to do was to sit in the shade of a tree and watch the plants grow and it was in this way that he painted himself in the labyrinth of tree rings stretched out though in paradise under the tree of knowledge. Conversation With a Tree here Conversation and Conservation mean the same the conversation with the tree means its conservation. Hundertwasser's meditative one might almost say religious contemplation of a tree and the mythology of the Maoris encounter one another in a picture like Pohutukawa tree.
(Brockstedt, Hans (ed.): Ao Tea Roa - Island of Lost Desire, design and photographs by Hundertwasser, Hamburg: Albrecht Knaus Verlag, 1979)
- World Travelling Museum Exhibition:
- Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, 1976
- National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1976
- Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1976
- Musée Dynamique, Dakar, 1976
- Seibu Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1977
- Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1977
- South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1977
- Pretoria Art Museum, 1977
- Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, 1977
- Museu de Arte, São Paulo, 1977
- Museo des Bellas Artes, Caracas, 1977
- Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 1978
- Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montreal, 1978
- Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1978
- Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1978
- Mücsarnok, Budapest, 1978
- *
- Travelling exhibition 1979-1981:
- Aberbach Fine Art, New York, 1979
- Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, 1980
- Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg, 1980
- Hammerlunds Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1980
- Galerie Würthle, Vienna, 1981
- Art Fair, Basel, 1979
- FIAC, Paris, 1980
- P. Restany, Hundertwasser, New York, 1978, p. 123 (c)
- H. Brockstedt (ed.), Ao Tea Roa, Hamburg, 1979 (c)
- A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 586/587 (and c)
- F. Hundertwasser / P. Restany, Hundertwasser, New York, 2008, p. 51 (c)
- G. Illetschko, Planet Hundertwasser, Munich, 2012, p. 79 (c)
- The Tel Aviv Museum, 1976, p. 265 (c)
- Supplementary edition no. 2, Copenhagen, 1976, p. 27
- Seibu Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1977, p. 265 (c)
- South African National Gallery, Cape Town / Pretoria Art Museum, 1977, p. 265 (c)
- Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro / Museu de Arte, São Paulo / Palácio Itamaraty, Brasilia, 1977, p. 265 (c)
- Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, 1977, p. 265 (c)
- Supplementary edition Caracas, 1977, cat. Tecnica mixta 26
- Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 1978, p. 265 (c)
- Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1978, p. 265 (c)
- Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 1980, p. 265 (c)
- Sonja Henies og Niels Onstads Stiftelser Kunstsentret, Høvikodden, 1980, p. 265 (c)
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1980, p. 313 (c)
- Secession, Vienna, 1981, p. 313 (c)
- Kulturhaus, Graz, 1981, p. 313 (c)
- Helsingin kaupungin taidemuseo, Helsinki, 1981, p. 265 (c)
- Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1983, p. 265 (c)
- Travelling exhibition 1979-1981: Hundertwasser Is Painting (c)
- A. Wagner-Link, Verhaltenstraining zur Streßbewältigung, Munich, 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2005, cover (c)
- Hundertwasser Bibel, Augsburg, 1995, AT, p. 213 (adaptation, c)
- D. Berkemer / S. Michels (ed.), Kompass 8, Paderborn, 2001, p. 222 (c)
- Leben - Glauben, no. 39, Sep. 23, 1988, p. 26 (c)
- Der Druckspiegel, Sep. 1995, pl. IV (c)
- Postcard, Cicero GmbH, Stuttgart, 1976
- Postcard, Gruener Janura AG, Glarus, 1976 (repr.)
- Art Agenda, Cicero GmbH, Stuttgart, 1979
- Invitation Card, Aberbach Fine Art, New York, 1979 (detail)
- Exhibition poster, Aberbach Fine Art, New York, 1979 (detail)
- Calendar 1977, Cicero GmbH, Stuttgart (November, big)
- Art Agenda, Hundertwasser 1979, Cicero GmbH, Stuttgart
- Exhibition poster, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, 1979 (detail)
- Invitation card, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, 1979 (detail)
- Art Calendar, Hundertwasser 1980, Cicero GmbH, Stuttgart (December, small)
- Exhibition poster, Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg, 1980 (detail)
- Invitation card, Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg, 1980 (detail)
- Hundertwasser artclou 1989, Caesar International Art, Stuttgart
- Hundertwasser Art Jahrbuch 1992, Caesar International Art, Stuttgart
- Hundertwasser Art Memo, Caesar International Art, Suttgart
- Hundertwasser Wrapping paper, Museums Betriebs Gesellschaft, Vienna, 1991 (680 x 955 mm, multi-mirrored)
- Hundertwasser 2004 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne (and reprints)
- Calendar: Hundertwasser 2004, B. Wörner, Zug
- Bookmark, B. Wörner, Rutesheim, 1995 and ed. 2007 (detail)
- Calendar, Hundertwasser Jahrbuch 2008, Borer & Wörner, Zug
- Hundertwasser Art Calendar 2008, Borer & Wörner, Zug
- Hundertwasser Agenda, Wörner, Rutesheim, 2008
- Hundertwasser Diary 2009, Wörner, Rutesheim
- Hundertwasser Diary 2010, Wörner, Rutesheim
- Hundertwasser 2012 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne (and reprints)
Hundertwasser's comment on the work
I like to paint my own feet, the way they look from my head. When you're lying down or walking, that is all you see of yourself if you don't look in a mirror. Feet and hands are companions. When I photograph my pictures as they stand on the floor, I get my feet into the picture, too, to show the proportions. Feet are more beautiful bare than in shoes, and they give more of themselves. It is hard to get the hands in when you have to hold the camera with one hand. The distance of your own hand is shorter than the focus allows. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 586)