Pierre Restany Books

Life and work of the Austrian architect and artist.

Architect, artist, ecological visionary, Friedensreich Hundertwasser left a thrilling trail of imagination and activism in buildings, paintings, manifestos, and more. From naked addresses and tree planting campaigns to the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Hundertwasser refused the straight line in every sense. His vision was as much for society at...

271 pages, illustrated throughout. This Catalogue Raisonne of G.H. Rothe's mezzotints has been divided into the following Dance, Horses, Still Life, Landscapes, Figurative. The images within each section have been listed in chronological order, according to published dates.

The paintings and architecture by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser are nothing less than revolutionary with respect to nature and individual creativity. His work is not about silent conformity, but about life itself: each individual, in society and in the environment. With their strong, colorful formal vocabulary, Hundertwasser?s works allow nature its space. Even beyond his artwork, though, the Austrian environmentalist fought for new ideas and ideals. In many conversations, lectures, letters, and manifestos, he formulated his notions?from recycling, the greening of roofs and façades, and the democratization of living space?in order to lend them weight. What seemed like a utopia to his contemporaries is now urgently virulent and surprisingly current. Commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Hundertwasser?s death, this attractive book compiles his statements, excerpts from his manifestos, his paintings, examples of his utopian architecture, and his ideas for the future.

SITE, a "multidisciplinary architecture and environmental organization", designed large scale commercial buildings that combine architecture, art, and technology with contemporary issues such as "ritual, irony, humor, entropy, disorder, and social/political statement. 112 pages, with a list of SITES projects, a bibliography, and 14 "Selected Projects" , briefly described and summarized in a black/white section, then more fully displayed in 79 pages of mostly color plates. An example? The Forest Building, a large Best catalog outlet, planned for a previously forested area, is fronted by the regulation sprawling parking lot placed in a natural clearing, but trees surround and almost obscure the edges of the building, and pop up through the roof as well; a nearby bank has a roof designed of about 35% trees rather than 100% asphalt. Fun and fascinating, but also thought-provoking architecture.

L'engagement d'un artiste non-conformiste, chantre d'un mode de vie alternatif qui bouleverse la conception des rapports entre l'homme et la nature. Les structures organiques et la profusion de couleurs qui dominent son style reflètent une vision sereine et optimiste de l'époque actuelle.