224 The Large Path

Künstler*in Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928 Wien – 2000 an Bord der Queen Elizabeth 2)

Object typePainting
MediumSynthetic resin on canvas
Dimensions
158 × 158 cm
SignatureSign. links unten: HUNDERTWASSER
Inventory number5495
Locations Belvedere, Upper Belvedere, 2. Floor (east), Room NO2
Luminous red and luminous blue. The two colors form a spiral, painted by hand, with contours that are deliberately left open. The abstract form of the spiral is the central motif in the oeuvre of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Like the meditative raked grooves in a Japanese Zen garden, it is a symbolic representation of life, of its organic growth and eventual passing over into the infinite that is death. The artist received seminal impulses for the idea of a dynamic conception of the world from the works of Lao Tzu and Buddhist and Taoist writings. A painter, architect, and environmental activist, Hundertwasser was far ahead of his time in his engagement with the “green” concerns to which his work owes its unfading relevance.