Navigation (in separate window)

 Homepage Art History on Stamps

Search Google

Hundertwasser Stamps
 New Zealand

Back to Expressionism

Introduction Austria France Cabo Verde
Cuba Germany Liechtenstein Luxembourg
Senegal UN-Geneva UN-NewYork UN-Vienna
New Zealand Pictorial Postmark Obituary Checklist

The World famous Austrian painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser spent the last 20 years of his life living in the north of New Zealand in a small town called Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands. He is however not as well known in his adopted New Zealand as in his native Austria, mainly because most of his architectural work is located in Europe. Kawakawa, also known as known as "Train town of the north", due to it being the location of the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, which runs between Kawakawa and Opua (now defunct), on the northernmost tip of the North Island, facing the Pacific. 

A noted exception, though, is located in Kawakawa where the public toilets are of Hundertwasser design. They attract a continual stream of locals and tourists to pause and admire the uniqueness of Hundertwasser's architecture in this rather unusual location :-) 

On the back of the card is affixed a small label (3.2 x 2 cm) of the same design, but with no postal value. 

  • New Zealand 2006. Postcard showing an image of the public toilet at Kawakawa. The card is cancelled by New Zealand Post on 10th Oct 2006, at Kawakawa Post Office. See enlarged scan. 

New Zealand 2006. Hundertwasser. Postcard showing an image of the public toilet at Kawakawa. The card is cancelled by New Zealand Post on 10th Oct 2006, at Kawakawa Post Office.

New Zealand 2002. Hundertwasser. Pane #1. New Zealand 2002. Hundertwasser. Pane #2.

Universal Mail in New Zealand, a direct competitor of the New Zealand Post, released international stamps with Hundertwasser images on December 29, 2002. The stamps do not depict graphics created by Hundertwasser, but show drawings of 5 different buildings designed by him. The artwork was organized by the Austrian stamp dealer Herbert Abfalter.  It is unknown who is the designer of the stamps, which are issued in a limited printing of 2500 and are issued in se-tenant strips of 5 for each of the two different values ($1.50 and $2.00).  

  • Pane of five different designs, each of the face value of 1,50 NZ-dollars, intended for postcards and aerograms.

  • Pane of the same designs, each of the face value of 2,00 NZ-dollars, intended for letters in envelopes. 

    • The circular top stamp shows a Heat Factory, projected for Spittelau, Vienna. 

    • The first rectangular stamp "Living under the Rain Tower" shows a housing project intended for Plochingen am Neckar. 

    • The second rectangular stamp shows "Housing Area in the Grassland" and is projected for Bad Soden am Taunus. 

    • The third rectangular stamp depicts "The Church of St. Barbara" and is intended for Bärnbach, Steiermark, and

    • The fourth rectangular stamp "Freeway Roadhouse" is projected for Bad Fischau, Niederösterreich. 

New Zealand 2002. Hundertwasser. First Day Cover 2002.

More First Day Items are available, among others a cover similar to the above, with a full pane of 2,00 NZ-dollars, ten covers with one of each of the stamps in each of the values, postcards first-day-cancelled with either of the stamps, etc. 

Sources and links: 

Introduction Austria France Cabo Verde
Cuba Germany Liechtenstein Luxembourg
Senegal UN-Geneva UN-NewYork UN-Vienna
New Zealand Pictorial Postmark Obituary Checklist

Back to Expressionism

Navigation (in separate window)

 Homepage Art History on Stamps

Search Google
Revised 25-okt-2006. Ann Mette Heindorff
Copyright © 1999-2007. All Rights Reserved

Homepage Heindorffhus