THE MAN WITH FIVE SKINS
What a pleasure to meet up with Laurent and go to an exhibition. This time it was «In the Skin of Hunterwasser» at the Musée en Herbe.
This is mainly a childrens’ centre (why I guess that I have never visited it) where they are able to learn and create their own world. When we arrived, there was a group of very young children. I suppose around 4 or 5 years old. Laurent and I went in and the chidren were there straight after us. The age groups visiting the museum are from 3-103 years. Adding our ages, we just made it. The exhibition may invite children to express their own creativity but somehow it seemed a little too sophisticated to me. Especially the title «The Painter-King with five skins».
The painting itself seemed close to Aloise whom I had seen in Lausanne (see Blog chapter "Two Days of Weath and colour" - 7th October 2012)
Even in a strange way Seraphine and her work which I do like. Somehow I think that what Craig had showed me in Asilah (Morocco), also reminded me of his paintings. Or was it Jean- Paul Orthoniel's sculptures which I admire even though many friends feel I am slightly off-beat to appreciate "The Kiosk of Nightbirds" at the Palais Royal.
Hundertwasser could not be categorized.I prefer it that way.
This video too gives a very good idea of his facades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzp7QohJVc
What fascinated me though was the concept of 5 skins.
An Austrian and a non-comformist. He died in New Zealand would you believe in 2000 at the age of 72.
He had spent all his life endeavouring to mobilize the power of his art to spread a message for a life in harmony with nature and individual creativity. Probably a forerunner of enviromental protection and an ambassador for a self determined alternative existence. Seems to relate to the exhibition I saw the other day at the EDF. "Looking at the Future" I’m pretty sure I saw Hundertwasser's house facade in Vienna.
He thought that buildings, and anything that touched our everyday lives should be colourful and - different. His own clothes' creations were very odd. Even down to his shoes which he thought should be odd rather than a pair.
But let’s get back to the 5 skins as his work is too vast to write about in one single chapter.
I have taken the website text intentionally as although his concept sounds simple, 5 skins - epidermis, clothes, houses, identity and earth, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. He gave talks naked when he was discovering his skins and there are quite a few photos of him like that. Not something perhaps that I should post on my Blog site.
He decorated building, churches, made specific stamps for collections, accessories, and even redesigned flags for different countries. New Zealand was one of them.
The Koru Flag
From what I have seen on Internet, there is an immense amount to see on his work. While he lived in New Zealand, his creation and design of building, boats etc. was prolific. These toilets are just a small idea of what he could do. The more I look at his work, the more I like what he did outside or changing the "look" of something reasonably banal.
He was certainly mutifunctionnal artist. Marginal I would say. Problem is, I am still trying to work out a few days later if I preferred his outside work to his paintings!
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| The exhibition |
This is mainly a childrens’ centre (why I guess that I have never visited it) where they are able to learn and create their own world. When we arrived, there was a group of very young children. I suppose around 4 or 5 years old. Laurent and I went in and the chidren were there straight after us. The age groups visiting the museum are from 3-103 years. Adding our ages, we just made it. The exhibition may invite children to express their own creativity but somehow it seemed a little too sophisticated to me. Especially the title «The Painter-King with five skins».
The painting itself seemed close to Aloise whom I had seen in Lausanne (see Blog chapter "Two Days of Weath and colour" - 7th October 2012)
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Hundertwasser could not be categorized.I prefer it that way.
This video too gives a very good idea of his facades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzp7QohJVc
Jean-Michel
Othoniel
What fascinated me though was the concept of 5 skins.
An Austrian and a non-comformist. He died in New Zealand would you believe in 2000 at the age of 72.
He had spent all his life endeavouring to mobilize the power of his art to spread a message for a life in harmony with nature and individual creativity. Probably a forerunner of enviromental protection and an ambassador for a self determined alternative existence. Seems to relate to the exhibition I saw the other day at the EDF. "Looking at the Future" I’m pretty sure I saw Hundertwasser's house facade in Vienna.
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| Facades |
He thought that buildings, and anything that touched our everyday lives should be colourful and - different. His own clothes' creations were very odd. Even down to his shoes which he thought should be odd rather than a pair.
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| Ajouter une légende |
But let’s get back to the 5 skins as his work is too vast to write about in one single chapter.
«For Hundertwasser, man has three skins: his natural epidermis, his clothes, his house. When in 1967 and 1968 the artist delivered his “Naked” address to proclaim man’s right to his third skin (the free alteration of his house), he accomplished the ritual full cycle of his spiral.
He re-found his first skin, that of his original truth, his nakedness as a man and painter, by stripping off his second skin (his clothes) to proclaim the right to his third skin (his home)».
Later, after 1972, when the major ideological turning-point had been passed, the spiral of Hundertwasser’s chief concerns began to unfold. His consciousness of being was enriched by new questions, which called for fresh responses and elicited new commitments. So appeared the new skins that were to be added to the concentric envelopment of the three previous ones. Man’s fourth skin is the social environment (of family and nation, via the elective affinities of friendship). The fifth skin is the planetary skin, directly concerned with the fate of the biosphere, the quality of the air we breathe, and the state of the earth’s crust that shelters and feeds us».
I have taken the website text intentionally as although his concept sounds simple, 5 skins - epidermis, clothes, houses, identity and earth, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. He gave talks naked when he was discovering his skins and there are quite a few photos of him like that. Not something perhaps that I should post on my Blog site.
He decorated building, churches, made specific stamps for collections, accessories, and even redesigned flags for different countries. New Zealand was one of them.
The Koru Flag has been proposed as a secondary flag for New Zealand. It was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1983. It is claimed by some New Zealanders that the current flag of New Zealand is a reminder of British colonialism and does not truly represent their culture; however, those who support the current flag say that it represents the history of the country as a part of the British Empire and location in the southern hemisphere.
As black is a traditional colour of the Māori, the flag has a black strip on the left side. There is a fern green spiral which starts by taking up the entire width of the flag but decreases gradually, splitting it diagonally and finally curling up into a spiral on the right side. This curling fern is based on a Māori pattern known as the koru, and the corresponding white spiral alludes to Aotearoa, a Māori name for New Zealand meaning Land of the Long White Cloud.
He saw the design as representing humanity in harmony with nature.
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He was certainly mutifunctionnal artist. Marginal I would say. Problem is, I am still trying to work out a few days later if I preferred his outside work to his paintings!
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| In the skin of Hundertwasser |
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| Children's hospital project |
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| -hundertwasser-house |
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| hundertwasser-the end of water -1979 |
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