HUNDERTWASSER ON HUNDERTWASSER
What does a man need in order to be happy
Progression is retrogression and retrogression
becomes progression
My painting is, I think, completely different because
it is vegetative painting
One reason why other people do not want to paint
vegetatively or want to take to a vegetative way of
life is because it begins too unpretentiously, it does
not have great eclat or drum roll; on the contrary it
grows quite slowly and simply, and that does not
appeal to our social order, people want instant
results based on the slash and burn principle
I should like, and I do it too quite instinctively,
to live an example, live an example to people, paint
for them a paradise that each may have, he need
only grasp it
Paradise is there, but we destroy it
I want to show how basically simple it is to have
paradise on earth
And everything that the religions and dogmas and
the various political creeds promise, is all nonsense
And there of course I come into conflict with
society which completely misunderstands that
They believe that it is eccentricity, just a
publicity stunt, but they forget that that is part of
myself, that that is my natural form of expression
Why may a human being not do what he needs to do,
like a flower
The colourful, the abundant, the manifold, is always
better than mediocre grey and uniformity
Only those who think and live creatively will survive
in this life and beyond
One must live as though one were at war and
everything rationed
Man must be careful
Must think independently, must economize
Should not waste blindly
Man must take care that the cycle functions
The cycle from eating to shitting functions naturally
But the cycle from shitting to eating is disconnected
Being happy does not depend on wealth at all
Does not depend on production
That is difficult to say
Paintings for me are gateways, which enable me, if I have
been successful, to open them into a world which is both
near and far for us, to which we have no admission, in
which we find ourselves, but which we cannot perceive,
which is against the real world
Our parallel world, from which we remove ourselves
in one respect
Yes, and that is the paradise, that is what we are in,
what we are arrested in, and which some inexplicable
power denies us
And so I have succeeded in throwing windows open
How I succeeded is difficult to explain
On no account by force, nor by calculation, nor by
intelligence, nor necessarily by intuition, but almost
as though sleep-walking
The work of the artist is very difficult, because it
cannot be done by force, diligence or intelligence
I think that by strength and diligence and intelligence
one can do anything else in life, but the rewards of
art are totally unattainable by these means
Therefore, by goodness even a good person, finds
himself suddenly up against a barrier, he cannot get
beyond it
It is very strange, isn’t it, if a man contributes all
he has, diligence, goodness, perseverance, intelli-
gence, everything that he has, and in spite of that he
doesn’t get anywhere
What is the reason for this
I believe, and I am absolutely certain, and therefore
I believe, that painting is a religious occupation,
that the actual impulse comes from without, from
something else that we do not know, an indefinable
power which comes or does not come and which guides
your hand
People used to say in earlier times that it was the
muse, for example, it’s a stupid thing to say of course,
but it is some kind of illumination
And the only thing one can do is to prepare the
ground, so that this extraterrestrial impulse or
however else one might describe it can reach you
That means keeping oneself ready
That means eliminating the will, eliminating the
intelligence, eliminating “wanting to do better”,
eliminating ambition
I should perhaps like to be known as the magician of
vegetation or something similar
We are in need of magic
I fill a picture until it is full with magic, as one
fills up a glass with water
Everything is so infinitely simple, so infinitely
beautiful
written in Venice, 1975
Published in:
Catalogues of the World Travelling Museum Exhibition 1975–1987: French edition: Paris, Luxembourg, Marseille, Cairo, 1975; Copenhagen, Dakar, 1976; Montreal, Brussels, 1978. English edition: Tel Aviv, Reykjavik, 1976; Cape Town, Pretoria, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia, Caracas, 1977; Mexico City, Toronto, 1978; Rome, Høvikodden, 1980; Helsinki, 1981; London, 1983. German edition: Warsaw, 1976; Pfäffikon/Lake Zurich, 1979; Cologne, 1980; Vienna, Graz, 1981.
Österreicher, die der Welt gehören. (Austrians who belong to the world) edited by Mobil Oil Austria AG, Vienna. Vienna: Brüder Rosenbaum Verlag, 1979, p. 99 (German).
Journal Artcurial, no. 17, Oct. 1980, Paris (French, Excerpt)
Hundertwasser Graphic Works 1994–2000. The Exhibition of Hundertwasser’s Last Graphic Works. Vienna: Museums Betriebs Gesellschaft, 2001, pp. 61-65 (German and English).
Schurian, Walter (ed.): Hundertwasser – Schöne Wege, Gedanken über Kunst und Leben. (Beautiful Paths – Thoughts on Art and Life) Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv), 1983, pp. 25-27 and ed. 2004 (Munich, Langen Müller Verlag), pp. 20-21 (German).
A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 21-24 (German and English).
KunstHaus Abensberg, Abensberg, 2014, pp. 46-48 (German)