You will develop your observational drawing skills and use your imagination to design your own buildings and create work that is inspired by Hundertwasser’s artistic and ecological ideology.

During this project you will investigate the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, one of the most important architects of the 20th century. You will also research Transautomatism, a style of painting created by Hundertwasser.

You will develop your understanding of colour, mark making and explore painting, printing and collage in the development of your work.

SoW: Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Lesson 1

Learning Objective:Develop an understanding of the Artist and Architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Learning Outcome:Apply this knowledge to a drawing in response to Hundertwasser’s ideas.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser• Hundertwasser was born in 1928 in Vienna,

Austria and died in 2000.• He was a painter, architect, ecologist and

visionary.• Hundertwasser once said, ‘Beauty is

Panacea’.

What is a PANACEA?

What do you think he meant?

Hundertwasser thought about all sorts of things.

For him painting was like dreaming. He believed that painters take us with them into their own world.

He thought about how people might look after their environment

He thought about how people might live…

…in harmony with nature.

Hundertwasser believed that people are not happy when they have lost their connection to nature.

He thought that people should be able to enjoy nature even if they live in a city.

Hundertwasser thought that a happy place should glow with bright colours.

He believed that everyone should live like kings in a

fairytale castle.

Remember this:

Hundertwasser once said, ‘Beauty is Panacea’.

How does this relate to his work? What was he trying to ‘cure’ and how was he attempting to do this?

Cure the sick block of flats.Look at the shapes, patterns and colours in Hundertwasser’s buildings. Can you show nature in the building too? Draw and colour on top of the building.

To print

To print

To print

Not everyone can afford to build their own house to their own specification.

Hundertwasser thought it was still important to show that unique people lived behind every window of a property, and demanded that everyone should have the right to design the area around their window themselves.

Window Rights

Claim the rights for these windows. Decorate the area around each one differently. What happens when the different designs meet? Treat this text box and the image below as more windows.

To print

Lesson 2

Learning Objective:Develop an understanding of the colour wheel and learn specific vocabulary related to colour theory.

Learning Outcome:Create a colour wheel that shows an understanding of primary, secondary and complementary colours.

Formal Elements

LineShapeFormToneTexturePatternColour

STEP 1

Cut out the colour wheel insert and stick it into the centre of your paper plate or circle of paper.

Step 1

Primary Colours

These colours cannot be made by mixing any other colours. Can you name them?

Primary Colours

These colours cannot be made by mixing any other colours. Can you name them?

Red Yellow Blue

Primary Colours

Paint the primary colours onto your plate or circle of paper.

Make sure they are in the right place.

Secondary Colours

These colours are made by mixing pairs of Primary Colours. Can you name them?

Secondary Colours

These colours are made by mixing pairs of Primary Colours. Can you name them?

Orange Green Purple

Secondary Colours

Paint the secondary colours onto your plate or circle of paper.

Make sure they are in the right place.

Tertiary Colours

These colours are made by mixing a Primary Colour with a Secondary Colour. Can you name them?

Tertiary Colours

These colours are made by mixing a Primary Colour with a Secondary Colour. Can you name them?

Yellow / Orange Red / Orange Blue / Green

Yellow/ Green Red / Violet Blue Violet

Tertiary Colours

Paint the tertiary colours onto your plate or circle of paper.

Make sure they are in the right place.

Complementary and Harmonious colours

Complementary (contrasting colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel).Analogous or Harmonius colour relationships.

Which of these pairs of colours are harmonious and which pairs are complementary pairs (sit opposite each other on the colour wheel)?

opposite

opposite

harmonious harmonious opposite

harmoniousharmonious

opposite

opposite opposite

harmoniousharmonious

Extension TaskHue, Tints, Tones and Shades

Hue: Colour

Tints are created when you add white to any hue on the colour wheel. This will lighten and desaturate the hue, making it less intense.

Tones are created when you add both black and white to a hue. You could also say grey has been added.

Shades are created when only black is added to a hue. This results in a rich, often more intense and darker colour.

Warm and Cool Colours

Lesson 3

Learning Objective:Develop an understanding of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s concept about the five skins.Use knowledge of colour theory to create paintings that demonstrate complementary and harmonious relationships.

Learning Outcome:Painted spirals that show a control of colour mixing and application of the paint.

The Five SkinsLike the layers of an onion we are made up from many parts that create the whole. Hundertwasser believed that without each layer we are not whole.

Hundertwasser addressed ecology decades before it arrived as a mass movement. He respected the dignity and well-being of the individual and understood that joyful self-expression is the gateway into happiness.

He explored the sensitivity of each “skin” and artistically unfolded the richness of each layer in his life and work.

The First Skin: The Natural Epidermis / Skin

• The skin contains our inner truth.• The body keeps everything together and is the part which everybody can see.• All living creatures have a skin.• The skin is suitable for the creature depending on how and where it lives.

Look at the pictures below. What type of skin does each have and why is it suitable?

The Second Skin: Clothes

Hundertwasser’s self made Winter and Summer shoes.

Hundertwasser calls for us to renounce consumer society, to turn away from the dictates of fashion and from the unifying anonymity and uniformity of ready-made-clothing. He calls for the creativity of each individual and for the right to a creative design of our second skin.

The Third Skin: House

Hundertwasser considered the third skin to be our homes. The outer covering of our private living space. In answer to functional architecture with its geometrical straight lines and sterile grid system, which hurt nature and man, Hundertwasser offers a more human architecture in harmony with nature.

He hated the straight lines and conformity of buildings and thought that the outside of our houses should represent the people living inside them.

‘When you build a house, you must start with the windows, for they are the bridge between inside and outside. Just as the first skin is penetrated by pores, the third is by windows. The eyes are the equivalent of windows.’

Spirals Hundertwasser noticed that there are no straight lines in nature and many of his painting included spirals which he saw everywhere. Think of three spirals that occur in nature…. Can you think of a spiral in that is in or on the body?

Hundertwasser said: Our earth describes a spiral course. We move in circles, but we never come back to the same point. The circle is not closed. We only pass the same neighbourhood many times.

What vegetable was the idea of the five skins likened to? Why?Circles are also a feature of Hundertwasser’s paintings.

Circles

Painting experimentsChoose pairs of colours. Carefully paint spirals combining these two colours. Experiment with painting on wet paper, thick paint, watered down paint, combinations of these etc…Draw back into dry spirals with oil pastels.

Lesson 4

Learning Objective:Discover new ways to apply paint and create different effects.Use knowledge of colour theory to create paintings that demonstrate complementary and harmonious relationships.

Learning Outcome:Painting experiments that show a control of colour mixing, mark making and application of the paint.

Explore these different painting techniques. Experiment with different colour combinations

Sgraffito (from Italian "graffiare") means to scratch into the paint to reveal areas of the surface underneath.

Scumbling is a painting technique for dry brushing a layer of broken colour over another colour.

Don’t forget to label your experiments and explain the process….

Stippling is a technique when the brush is used end on.

Create papers to use in a collage

Think carefully about colour combinations and aim to demonstrate the techniques you have learnt so far.

Lesson 5

Learning Objective:Develop understanding of composition and balancing colour and texture.

Learning Outcome:Collage in response to Hundertwasser’s work demonstrating the different painting techniques and colour studies completed so far.

Hundertwasser often depicted trees like lollipops

Collage

Use the images of trees to plan a composition that will fill the A3 sheet.

To print

Carefully cut up your painted papers to build up your image of trees. Prepare the background first.Consider shapes within shapes.