Hundertwasser's Kunst Haus in Vienna

I have to say that this was one of my favorites in Vienna.  Hundertwasser was rather a controversial contemporary artist born in Vienna. Kunst House which was designed by the artist is so artistic, organic, and just so adorable.  The house contains 50 or so apartments, and the second floor has been opened to a public as a museum of Hundertwasser.  It said that Hundertwasser had a clear philosophy about the house he wanted to build.  The floor is not flat, as the flat floor is for machines.  He made the garden on top of the building, as the building covers the earth. The walls are made of plaster, so that the kids can draw on the wall and still can be repainted.  He wanted to make a house which grows with people who lives there.

The museum is filled with his paintings. What's noticeable about Hundertwasser's paintings are the colors (lots of very bright colors) and organic lines.  They sort of reminded me of Watt's Tower made by Simon Rodia, which I wrote in my LA blog. Interesting thing is that Hundertwasser's style of painting changed significantly when he was around 20 years old.  Till then, his paintings were just so beautiful and very true to life, which reminded me of Picasso's earlier paintings.  And all of a sudden it changed, as if something inside of him burst out onto his canvas.

It seems like he spent most of his time travelling.  He also spent quite a lot of time in Japan and was once married to a Japanese lady.  Although he has been deceased 10 years ago, his arts still exist all over the world including in Japan nad are being appreciated by local people.

Vienna Boys' Choir / ウィーン少年合唱団 / Wiener Sängerknaben

Vienna Boys' Choir is the most famous boy's choir in the world, and it is almost like an icon of Vienna.  The choir was established by Maximilian I of Habsburg in 1498.  Although it was dismissed in 1918 when Habsburg was destroyed, it was reformed again in 1924. 

The role of the choir was to provide musical accompaniment to the church mass. The boys received the top musical education, and many went on to become professional musicians. Franz Schubert or Clemens Krauss were one of them. Nowadays there ae about 100 boys aged between seven and fifteen who were strictly chosen, and they have been going around the world for the concerts.

Their concerts are being held every Sunday at the Burgkapelle inside Hofburg Imperial Palace. You can buy tickets in advance, or you can line up in front of the Burgkapelle on Sunday morning to get the extra tickets they may have.  The chapel itself is not big, but thy prepared chairs on the 2nd and 3rd floor for people like us to come and listen to the boys (and they have a huge projector showing the boys, too).  Boys will be located at the rear end of the 3rd floor, so if you get a seat facing the alter, you would not be able to see them.  Well... it would be difficult to see them from almost anywhere in the chapel to be honest.  But, at the very end, they would come downstairs and sing at the alter, so you can wait till then to take a picture - like I did :)  Not sure why we want to see them instead of just being satisfied with their singing, but anyway....

Unfortunately the alleged abuses from the past members of Vienna Boys' Choir were reported recently.

Freud Museum in Vienna

There is a house Sigmund Freud lived from 1891 till 1938 just outside the ring in Vienna. Sturdy but elegant building had total of five stories. The second story was used for his office. Now the second floor has been turned into his museum. You can learn a lot about Freud there. Somehow... I have been interested in Freud ever since I learned about him. Unfortunately I couldn't spend too much time there, but I was thrilled to step into his apartment and office that he actually lived his life. Btw, the middle aged Freud was quite a good looking guy, which I never knew :)

There were a couple of things that I learned about Freud. He was born in Moravi (!!), a little town called Příbor; then an Austrian town but now a Czech town. His parents had a 20 year of age difference. I understand that he found that he had a strong affection to his mother and also came up with the theory named "Oedipus complex," and I wonder if his parents' age difference had anything to do with it. He was also born with a caul, which was considered to be a sign of good luck back then.

I wanted to re-read his book "The Interpretation of Dreams," but it is packed in one of the boxes which were sent to the storage house in LA... :(