“The I Still Do Not Know” (1960)
Friedrich Hundertwasser didn´t like straight lines, but he was fascinated by spirals, which occur all the time in his pictures. He painted them all his life. He saw them as a symbol of life and nature.
An unborn baby lies in its mother’s womb(=vientre) like a tiny spiral. After it is born, as it grows and gets bigger, it unfolds (=desplegarse) like a flower. Tiny babies are often still curled up like a spiral as they lie in their cots (=cunas).
Even though we have learned to sit up straight and walk upright, we still often lie curled (=acurrucados )up in bed when we go to sleep. We feel safe when we lie like that.
If we look at nature we can find lots of examples of spirals: a fern (=helecho) which unrolls, a snail (=caracol), a whirlpool (=remolino), a spiral nebula in the space, a whirlwind photographed from space…also, there is one on each fingertip…
The spiral for Hundertwasser represents the line of life. When we die, the spiral of our souls keeps turning on and on. And that is why he drew so many in his pictures, again and again.
Which other paintings do you especially like and why ?
The Vintage Cottage 