992 City View 1994

Friedensreich Hundertwasser made this "992 City View" out of gouache and gold and silver paper. Look at how the shapes all stack up, like a wonky building in some kind of dreamscape. It's like he's piecing together a city from his imagination, one colorful block at a time. I can almost see Hundertwasser there, totally absorbed, letting the buildings rise and fall, guided by intuition rather than any kind of plan. See that spiral motif? It’s a recurring theme for him, a symbol of life and growth. And it's so cool how he mixes in the metallic paper, giving the whole thing a shimmer, as if the city itself is alive and breathing. He’s got this whole world-building thing going on; maybe it was a refuge for him, a kind of utopia in paint. Like Paul Klee, he’s making the familiar feel otherworldly, inviting us to see things from a totally fresh perspective. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, what kind of cities we could build if we just let our imaginations run wild?