2. Hundertwasser shares his thoughts:
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
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.
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.
3. Transautomatism
Transautomatism is a modern style of painting,
founded by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It is a kind
of surrealism, focusing on the viewer's fantasy
rather than an objective interpretation. Different
people see different things in the same picture. The
artist's intention is less pertinent to the end
experience, therefore, than how the viewer chooses
to interpret it. Transautomatism is based on the
different styles which Hundertwasser developed,
e.g. spirals and 'drops'.
Transautomatism is about Hundertwasser's theory
that straight lines are 'godless and immoral'. That as
humans we have lost our connection to the organic
geometry of nature by forcing ourselves to exist in
boxes as homes. He believed in the fluidity of line
and shape hence his architectural and painting style.
Being educated in a Montessori school his self-
directed learning came from nature and therefore
his drive to return to color and organic states.