Artprint "The Big Way"

Product Description

This art print after the Hundertwasser's painting „THE BIG WAY" (oeuvre 224) is a premium 7-colour offset print on 300 g/sqm matt coated illustration printing paper. Golden glossy-foils are embossed in several finishing steps. Three specialized companies in the area around Stuttgart are involved in this complicated manufacturing process.

Hundertwasser comment about the work:

„Because of the human scale of this spiral, it seems like a human trap of sorts. I started out exactly in the middle, pushing the spiral a bit further outward each day. The complementary colors red and blue make for a powerfully vibrating tonality. The open spaces within the spiral have been filled in with small fields that add up to form a cross within the spiral. I also had in mind the circular form of hopscotch that kids play and that's called "Snail's Hopscotch" in German (the French call it jeu d'oie). You start hopping and gradually move toward the center, until you miss a field and have to start all over again. You advance and are forced to retreat, just like in real life. Compared to the other images, this one allows for an additional way of viewing, as you do not have to look at it as a whole. Starting in the middle you can follow the entire course of the spiral with your finger or your eyes and become aware of how narrow the path often gets, how its colors change and what obstacles there are on the way. In order to follow the course mechanically you need to allow yourself several minutes at least. Among other things, you will arrive at bulges that seem like lakes or clearings. At the same time, the whole thing resembles a giant coiled-up snake that is digesting a few living beings it has just swallowed. The image is also likely to induce a feeling of dizziness in the viewer. When viewed from a distance, the image as a whole becomes the inside of a long hose seen in perspective, that leads into the blue sky. (Hundertwasser, 1955) My most significant spiral painting. I always wanted to place it next to the painting "The Kiss" by Klimt, which is also square, to compare the two. The red and blue spiral ribbons shimmer. It is often used for meditative purposes. So many stories have been associated with this painting. When it was exhibited as a major work in the Salon de Mai of 1956 in Paris, the sculptor Cesar showed me his work, an automobile crushed to a cube.“

(from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 291)