The Straight Line Is Godless and Immoral"

"Everything is so infinitely simple, so infinitely beautiful"

A couple of Sundays ago Monika called us up and asked us if we wanted to take the day for a spontaneous "Ausflug" to see some art--not just any art--the art of Hundertwasser. The pictures speak for themselves I think....but to help along, I've included some text from Hundertwasser to help you better understand the philosophy behind this Austrian architect's work. You should definitely look him up! At first I wasn't in love....but now I cannot get enough. 

stolen from the website

These pictures are from Rogner Bad Blumau : Thermal Bath Resort and Spa that he designed. We entered the gates by luck and Monika's quick decision to go through the exit gates because usually you are only allowed through the gates if you are a paying guest or member. Lucky us, we got through the gates and entered an Austrian wonderland. Unbelievable. 

"The work of the artist is very difficult, because it cannot be done by force, diligence or intelligence. I think that by strength and diligence and intelligence one can do anything else in life, but the rewards of art are totally unattainable by these means. Therefore, by goodness even a good person, finds himself suddenly up against a barrier that he cannot go beyond. It is very strange, isn't it, if a man contributes all he has, diligence, goodness, perseverance, intelligence, everything that he has, and in spite of that he doesn't get anywhere. What is the reason for this?? ....."

"I believe, and I am absolutely certain, and therefore I believe, that painting is a religious occupation, that the actual impulse comes from without, from something else that we do not know, an indefinable power which comes or does not come and which guides your hand."

"People used to say in earlier times that it was the muse, for example. It is a stupid thing to say of course, but it is some kind of illumination. And the only thing one can do is to prepare the ground, so that this extraterrestial impulse or however else one might describe it, can reach you."

"The colourful, the abundant, the manifold, is always better than mediocre grey and uniformity."

"The apartment house tenant must have the freedom to lean out of his window and as far as his arms can reach transform the exterior of his dwelling space. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and as far as his arms can reach, paint everything pink, so that from far away, from the street, everyone can see: there lives a man who distinguishes himself from his neighbors, the pent-up livestock! He must be allowed to cut up the walls and make all kinds of changes, even if this disturbs the architectural harmony of a so-called masterpiece, and he must be able to fill his room with mud or children's molding clay. But the lease prohibits this!"

"The time has come for people to rebel against their confinement in cubical constructions like chickens or rabbits in cages, a confinement which is alien to human nature."

"Today we live in a chaos of straight lines, in a jungle of straight lines. If you do not believe this, take the trouble to count the straight lines which surround you. Then you will understand, for you will never finish counting."



Alina and I studied the design on the corridor walls for a long time and now its all we dream about doing in the hallway in the Heart's Home...

"This jungle of straight lines, which is entangling us more and more like inmates in a prison, must be cleared. Until now, man has always cleared away the jungles he was in and freed himself. But to clear a jungle you must first become away that you are in one, for this jungle took form stealthily, unnoticed by mankind. And this time it is a jungle of straight lines."

"Any modern architecture in which the straight line or the geometric circle have been employed for only a second - and were it only in spirit - must be rejected. Not to mention the design, drawing-board, and model building work which has become not only pathologically sterile, but absurd. The straight line is not a creative line, it is a duplicating line, an imitating line. In it, God and the human spirit are less at home than the comfort-craving, brainless, intoxicated and unformed mass."

"Consequently, T-square structures, be they ever so curved, bending, overhanging, or perforated, are invalid. This is all just the panic of the constructive architects not to lose contact with trends and to change their style in time (look at the postmodernist style twenty years later). When rust sets in on a razor blade, when a wall starts to get mouldy, when moss grows in a corner of a room, rounding its gemetric angles, we should be glad because, together with the microbes and fungi, life is moving into the house and through this process we can more consciously become witnesses of architectural changes from which we have much to learn."

its as if youre not even in a building. amazing how it is so natural!
notice the floor....this is how he did all his floors. the straight line and the flat floor aren't natural or mean for man....our feet were made for the curves of the earth. 

i hope one day we will have this tree in our house :)

After the thermal bad we had lunch in the town nearby and then drove another half hour or so to discover St. Barbara's Church--the one and only church Hundertwasser designed. He was responsible for all the outside architecture...of the Church and of the surrounding landscape. And then inside the church he designed a beautiful stained glass window and the baptismal font, and the central piece of the Church, the cross and background of the altar...one of the most beautiful I have seen. (but the picture included here is from the internet because I didn't want to take pictures in the Church) 

The symbolism inside and outside abounds. My favorite quote of Hundertwasser's from the construction of the church follows: 

 "Die Kirche wurde so gestaltet, dass sie anziehend und einladend ist. Kommt zu mir! Hier ist es schön und gerecht. Eine festliche Kirche ohne Angst! Eine Kirche muß schön sein, man muß sich in ihr geborgen fühlen und es soll in ihr eine Atmosphäre herrschen, in der man eine Brücke zur Natur, zur Schöpfung und zu Gott findet. Gott soll gerne in ein Gotteshaus gehen, das die Menschen gebaut haben, um ihm dort zu begegnen. 

Gott ist ein Schöpfer. Wenn der Mensch seine Funktion als Ebenbild Gottes erfüllen will, muß er auch schöpferisch sein. Der Mensch nähert sich Gott durch Kreativität."

translated: "

"The Church was designed so that it would be inviting. It says to you, "Come to me!" Here, at this place, all is beautiful and just. It is a festival church without anxiety or fear. 

A Church must be beautiful. Man must  feel safe in it and  it should be ruled by an Atmosphere in which one finds a bridge to nature, to the creation, and to God. God should go gladly into a place of worship that the people constructed in order to meet Him there. God is a creator. If the person wants to fulfill his function as a likeness and image of God, he must be also be creative. The person approaches God through creativity." 

The Church is meant to be a colorful, cheerful place, both itself living, and affirming the life in and around it. Everything is rich in color, design, form, and imagination. Freedom reigns here. A creative freedom that serves only Beauty, and thus the Creator. 

Fr. Jacques getting a closer look - He would happily be the parish priest here

The meeting with God comes through creation. The three red apples in the tree--to symbolize the Trinity. 

the window in the blue part and surrounded by the orange and red droplets is the baptismal font window that he designed

art at the grotto for those lost during WWII

There is a total of 12 of these gates throughout the property surrounding the church, each with a different symbol corresponding to another belief from Jewish, to Buddhist, to atheist, to animist. Through each of the gates runs the same path--a curving and hilly pathway which is meant to represent the pathway of life with all of its ups and downs. Each gate, the symbolism of the 12 being the whole human race so as it is in the Bible, is a gate through which the human race travels through on the life search for answers to the questions that burn inside of him. The last gate--the gate of the entrance to the Church, meaning that all these belief systems are gates through which one passes, until one finally arrives at the final gate--Christianity--through which one finds the message, the religion, the God-man who is the answer to the vital questions of man's existence and destiny. 

In contrast to the outside, the interior of the Church is was designed by Hundertwasser along side several local artists as a simple, peaceful place naturally inviting the soul to prayer and beckoning the soul deeper into contemplation. Everything comes together, and all eyes naturally fix on the triumph of the Strahlenkranz Kreuz (shining cross)

After the Church, we drove another bit to Pollau--to the home where Monika grew up and where her mother still lives (her father passed away from lung cancer during her time with Heart's Home in Naples, IT). Her mother welcomed us and showed her around her house and through her beautiful garden (which she takes care of completely herself...amazing!). She had prepared an authentic Steirmarkish dinner for us--a breadboard of different types of meat and cheese, pickles, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, bread, bread spread, and Kern (horseradish). Fr. Jacques and Alina love Kern so much, Mrs. Haas actually let us dig Kern out of her garden to take home with us before we left, and she also sent us on our way with a huge sac of apples from her apple trees!! Nothing beats fresh, homegrown apples! And it was so wonderful to FINALLY meet the mother of our Mutti, so I guess we can call her our Oma?