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Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Hundertwasser Archives under no. 604.
The most dominant feature of this work is the huge staring eyes of the mask-like face, whose spiral pattern has a mesmerising effect. The prominence given to the head in this composition, reflects the influence of among others, Paul Klee, whose painting, Death and Fire of 1940 and other late drawings were known to have made an impression on Hundertwasser. Possibly the greatest influence, in the present work however, derives from the artist's interest in the primitive and ethnographic arts like the carved Maori head from a war canoe (see fig. 1). Drawing his swirling lines from plant and land forms found in topography, Hundertwasser developed a unique distinctive and mystic style that in this work is powerfully evoked to create an intense and almost hypnotic image.
Above all, it is the glazed brightness of the driver's eyes that Hundertwasser has sought to capture and assimilate in this work. As Herschel B. Chipp commented: "He transferred the kind of archaic stare ....into his own imagery. It was the iconic or idolistic quality of the 'stare' that he attempted to capture in his work rather than any specific appearance or representation" (Exh. cat. University Art Museum, Berkeley, California, Hundertwasser, October-November 1968, p. 40).
The most dominant feature of this work is the huge staring eyes of the mask-like face, whose spiral pattern has a mesmerising effect. The prominence given to the head in this composition, reflects the influence of among others, Paul Klee, whose painting, Death and Fire of 1940 and other late drawings were known to have made an impression on Hundertwasser. Possibly the greatest influence, in the present work however, derives from the artist's interest in the primitive and ethnographic arts like the carved Maori head from a war canoe (see fig. 1). Drawing his swirling lines from plant and land forms found in topography, Hundertwasser developed a unique distinctive and mystic style that in this work is powerfully evoked to create an intense and almost hypnotic image.
Above all, it is the glazed brightness of the driver's eyes that Hundertwasser has sought to capture and assimilate in this work. As Herschel B. Chipp commented: "He transferred the kind of archaic stare ....into his own imagery. It was the iconic or idolistic quality of the 'stare' that he attempted to capture in his work rather than any specific appearance or representation" (Exh. cat. University Art Museum, Berkeley, California, Hundertwasser, October-November 1968, p. 40).