Born at Vienna in 1928 and became, to maturity, citizen of New Zealand, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) is one of the best-known artists of the end of the 20th century, but also one of the most controversial. Half-Jew (his mother was Jewish), he avoided persecution under the Nazi regime joining the Hitler Youth, and due to the experiences from that period he had always an strong anti-totalitarian position. Maybe that's why his works were remarked firstly by bright colours, organic forms, rejecting the straight lines, and a strong individualism. Versatile and prolific, he designed coins, flags and stamps, but also expressed itself in pictorial art, environmentalism, philosophy and clothing. The most important of his works are however linked by architecture, his style rejecting the rationalism and functional architecture, they consider guilty of human misery.
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