Hundertwasser Stamps 
Austria

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One of Hundertwasser's major issues was preservation of nature for the good of everybody.  This attitude is beautifully reflected on the latest stamp, issued by Austria on 22nd October 2004, where the stamp states that "Die freie Natur is unsere Freiheit" [The Open Nature is our Freedom].  Engraving by Wolfgang Seidel.  The design of the stamp is based on a poster Hundertwasser made in 1994 for The National Park Donau-Auen [Donau Meadows]. A postcard depicting the original art work is available here. More information about Hundertwasser's involvement in the Donau Meadows National Park here. 

At the same time a special postmark was designed and used for the 5th meeting of Hundertwasser-Friends in Donau-Auen in Hainburg outside Vienna.  

• Austria 2004.  Issue from the National Park Donau-Auen in Hainburg. 

• Austria 2004.  Very nice, commercially used cover on the day of issue of the stamp, 22nd October 2004.  The photograph on the cachet shows Hundertwasser showing the the original poster to two officials. Further the cover has the logo of the meeting of the Association of Hundertwasser-Friends in Hainburg, Vienna.  The cover was sent to the webmaster from Vienna by ordinary mail.

Hundertwasser's decorative abstract style followed in the Secessionist (art nouveau) tradition of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. His hypnotic, sometimes whimsical work shows an almost obsessional preoccupation with spiral forms: Buildings, landscapes, and human shapes are all transformed into abstract dynamic spirals. His coloring shows Asian and Persian influence, concentrating on gold and silver and especially on phosphorescent red and green.

• Austria 1975.  "The Spiral Tree".  

• Austria 1975.  The First Day Cover is cancelled on 11th December 1975. 

The Hundertwasser House, built 1983-1986, is a residential property, a multicolored fairy tale house with columns, domes, tile-mosaics and horizontal colourful areas dividing the storeys, and semi-round or rectangular windows encircled by mosaics. Hundertwasser felt that standard architecture could not be called art, and declared that the design of any building should be influenced by the aesthetics of its tenants.   

• Photo of the architecture model of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna.

• Austria 1987.  The Hundertwasser House in Vienna, as shown on the photo to the left. It is somehow thought provoking, that the Austrian post office has chosen the stylized character "E" for marking the Europalia issue, the same character which is used today in the Euro-currency. In 1987 this currency was unknown in Europe.  

Hundertwasser passed away 19th February 2000, and on 2nd June that same year Austria issued a memorial sheet based on his work "Blue Blues", created 1994 as oeuvre No. 944.  The stamp below right is an earlier Hundertwasser issue by Austria, a detail of a water colour created 1993 for the Summit of the European Council in Vienna. The art work is oeuvre No. 134A. 

• Austria 2000.  Hundertwasser in Memoriam.  It is evident from the sheet that he was born on 15th December 1928 as Friedrich Stowasser, and died on 19th February 2000 as Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  The stamps in the sheet are all the same, though in different colours, and the title of the artwork is "Blue Blues". 
• Austria 1993.  Summit of the European Council in Vienna.  "36 Heads".  A similar stamp was issued by France 1994, but is not a joint issue.  

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