Again and again, he has painted children in brutal, violent settings. He has used Chris­tian iconography to depict Nazi officers, and juxtaposed rampaging soldiers with Images of childhood innocence. Visceral reactions come with the territory: one Installation in Cologne was physically attacked by neo Nazis. And yet, he says, he does not set out to shock. "Shock is a useless effect," he says. "Somebody in shock is completely useless. I want to make somebody think."
Instead, Helnwein's work speaks of a deep psychological need for meaning, even as it takes the form of violence and confrontation. Such an approach is rooted in the uneasy silences of growing up in post-war Austria and the shattered illusions of his early adult life, yet is still infused with an uneasy ideal­ism.
His art has brought him material rewards. Over the past 30 years, he has become an art superstar. His paintings and photographs command large prices. As he talks in his Co Tipperary castle, garbed in black clothes and dark glasses, Helnwein has the air of a vet­eran rock star and the lifestyle to match it. ...

Some might think that Los Angeles - its unrelenting sun, its one-step-away-from-reality perch -- is an incongruous place for someone like Helnwein. What he creates, regardless the medium - watercolor, oil, photography, performance art, sculpture - is a thorny psychological excursion into our sublimated self, our obscured corners and dark humors. His explorations into war crimes, Catholicism, disfigurement and the Holocaust are both unflinching and surgical. His work is in museum collections around the world, including those of LACMA and the Smithsonian, and critics have labeled it grotesque, fearless, disturbing and "veer[ing] dangerously close to offensive." People are surprised, he says, when they discern that he doesn't "seem insane." ...

Wie sah es in Arno Brekers Atelier aus?
Helnwein: Überall standen Gips-Plastiken von Negern und Juden herum, die er nach dem Krieg hergestellt hatte. Eine heroisierende überlebensgroße Büste stellte einen beleibten Schwarzen in Uniform und vielen Orden dar. Ich fragte, wer das sei. „Das war der frühere Präsident der Elfenbeinküste“, antwortete er. „Der tauchte in den sechziger Jahren bei mir auf, legte seinen Arm um meine Schultern und sagte: ‚Breker, kommen Sie zu mir an die Elfenbeinküste. Ich werde Ihr zweiter Hitler sein". Breker sollte eine neue Hauptstadt entwerfen, was dieser auch sofort tat. Er zeigte mir das Gipsmodell dieses Utopia in dessen Mitte sich ein gigantischer Platz befand mit der riesigen Skulptur eines Afrikaners - mit zerrissenem Hemd und gesprengten Fesseln, der aufgewühlte Blick und die geballte Faust gen Himmel gerichtet. Auf meine Frage, was aus dem Projekt geworden sei, antwortete Breker mit leiser, resignierender Stimme "Der Präsident ist leider kurze Zeit darauf gestürzt worden"
Wie reagierte Breker, als Sie ihn mit Ihrem Beyus-Porträt in der Hand fotografierten?
Helnwein: Er hielt das Bild hoch und murmelte: „Das hätte sich der Beuys aber nicht träumen lassen.“ ...

An alternative title to “Angels Sleeping” for this exhibition could be “All Hail to the Wounded Child,” as many of the works center on irreparably wounded children (both externally and internally) as the innocent victims of war. The children in Helnwien’s works may also represent the lost or destroyed child in all of us, not only as victims of war, but as victims of modern society, with all its mindless violence and perverse attraction to aggressive mobs and disturbances. If there were a soundtrack to this exhibition, it would be a long, endless scream.
Tony Ozuna, The Prague Post, 02. July 2008 ...

Helnwein v Rudolfinu Výstava Angels Sleeping představuje díla rakouského umělce Gottfrieda Helnweina, jehož tvorba se stala fenoménem hyperrealistické malby. Jeho fotograficky přesné malby čerpají z popokultury i historie, jeho velkým tématem je postavení dítěte v krajní situaci. Expozice je rozdělena do pěti oddílů, které představují hlavní témata Helnweinova práce s důrazem na malířskou tvorbu posledních let. První skupinu tvoří portréty obvázané autorovy tváře, ve druhé najdeme odkazy na nacistickou minulost Rakouska, ve třetíma a čtvrtém je ústředním tématem dítě. V poslední části najdeme fotografie inspirované popkulturou. Soubor vystavených děl je zapůjčen z autorova majetku, ale také z řady veřejných a soukromých sbírek z Evropy a USA. ...

Helnwein: Ich bin trotz allem gerne in Los Angeles, muss ich sagen. Ich geniesse es, wenn ich früh in der Morgensonne durch die ausgestorbenen Strassen Downtowns ins Atelier gehe, vorbei all den Graffiti-Kunstwerken an den Fassaden der heruntergekommenen Industriebauten und dem Abfall auf der Strasse. Bis Mittag lebe ich in einer Ghost-Town, da hier vorher kaum einer auf ist. Es ist ein bisschen wie in einem Film. Es hat was von "Blade-Runner", der ja auch hier gedreht wurde.
Verfall hat seine eigene Faszination und Ästhetik. ...

LARGE-scale art installations dotted around Waterford’s city centre depicting war images are causing controversy because of their graphic content.
The exhibition, The Last Child, by Austrian-born and Waterford-based artist Gottfried Helnwein, is part of the Waterford Fringe Festival and includes a variety of work placed at strategic locations in the city, such as the Quays, the Clock Tower, City Hall and John Roberts Square. Among the material featured in the images are depictions of children with guns and a child lying down, covered with blood, as well as various shots of children with their eyes closed, as if dead. ...

Ve dvaceti namaloval Gottfried Helnwein vlastní krví obraz "führera“. Vedení grafické školy ve Vídni, kde studoval, obraz zabavilo a autora vyloučilo. Nyní je někdejšímu studentu-provokatérovi šedesát, při osobním setkání působí vyrovnaně a vyhlíží jako rocker a šaman v jedné osobě. Jeho hyperrealistické obrazy připomínají temnou nacistickou minulost, obrazy nevinných dětí ztělesňujících krásu a čistotu rané duše. Výstavu nazvanou Angels Sleeping hostí do konce srpna pražská Galerie Rudolfinum. ...

An alternative title to “Angels Sleeping” for this exhibition could be “All Hail to the Wounded Child,” as many of the works center on irreparably wounded children (both externally and internally) as the innocent victims of war. The children in Helnwien’s works may also represent the lost or destroyed child in all of us, not only as victims of war, but as victims of modern society, with all its mindless violence and perverse attraction to aggressive mobs and disturbances.
If there were a soundtrack to this exhibition, it would be a long, endless scream. ...

Sono disparati i motivi che possono indurre a visitare la splendida e misterica capitale ceca, non ultimo i numerosi eventi commemorativi per i cinquant’anni decorsi dai tragici eventi della Primavera di Praga, ma le sale della galleria d’arte moderna del Rudolfinum, l’edificio in stile neorinascimentale che affaccia sulle acque della Moldava, diventa sino al termine di agosto meta d’obbligo per tutti gli amanti delle mostre epocali. Vi si tiene infatti un’esauriente retrospettiva dedicata al controverso artista austriaco Gottried Helnwein, dall’evocativo titolo Angels sleeeping: un percorso che si snoda in cinque sezioni rappresentative di altrettanti periodi della produzione del pittore, fotografo e performer. ...

What do Marilyn Manson, Mickey Mouse, violence against children and Nazism have in common? There may be a few ways to answer that question, but Gottfried Helnwein’s exhibition, Angels Sleeping, brings these topics together most powerfully, and might expose a few feelings of anguish you never knew you had.
If you have yet to experience the hyper-realistic paintings of Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, head to the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague at once. The art on offer spans his work from the 1970s up to the present day, split into five key sections that explore his most common themes of psychological and sociological suffering, with paintings so realistic you’ll question your own eyes. ...

But what does the hyper-realism of Austrian-born, Irish-based artist Gottfried Helnwein say to us and about us in the context of "Body Anxious"? His work is what puts this show on the map of bodily pain and anxiety. He has painted a hyper-realistic, oversized portrait of a little girl in a pink-and-white undershirt, her head and eyes swathed in gauze so recently wrapped that it glistens with blood. It is from Helnwein's "Los Caprichos" series, named after the famous Goya series. Art historians say Goya's "Caprichos" mark the beginning of the modern world of art because they were the first to look at, rather than avoid or symbolize, pain, fantasy, cruelty, disloyalty and any other number of grievous human traits. ...

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GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN "A comunicação de Helnwein não se restringe a normas de aceitação nem assume compromissos, seguindo de uma forma particularmente identificável uma linguagem onde abunda a perda de inocência, questões relacionadas com a exploração da imagem pela publicidade e a iconografia do universo infantil. ...

It’s immediately obvious that Angels Sleeping is going to be both powerful and unsettling. The first picture that catches the eye, “Modern Sleep I” (Moderní spánek I), is of a young girl wearing only a man’s jacket that brings to mind a Nazi uniform. A tear is in the corner of her eye and she appears to be looking fixedly at some object outside the painting’s scope. The light on her sweet-looking face and flashes of bare skin gives a sense of vulnerability and innocence that combines uncomfortably with how she is dressed. It creates a sense of foreboding in any observer thinking about what circumstances could lead to her being dressed this way. This is just the beginning of images that bring the maltreatment of children to the forefront, in particular Helnwein’s merciless references his country’s Nazi past. ...

Galerie Rudolfinum vystavuje díla jednoho z velkých hyperrealistických malířů dnešní doby. Rakušan Gottfried Helnwein ohromuje diváky nejen obrovskými několikametrovými plátny, ale i tématy a fotografickou realističností jeho maleb. ...

Nereflektovaná minulost, jež nepřetržitě prorůstá do současnosti a způsobuje úzkost, je Helnweinovým hlavním tématem. Expozice jeho hyperrealistické, za fotografii lehko zaměnitelné malby i fotografií pokračuje v dramaturgické psychologizující linii výstav Galerie Rudolfinum. Gottfried HelnweinHelnweinova tvorba má i silný politický přesah. Malíř se počátkem 70. let zařadil mezi vídeňské akcionisty, kteří kritizovali rakouskou kolektivní amnézii ve vztahu k fašistické minulosti země. Hnutí nezávislých politicky angažovaných umělců se snažila státní moc potlačit, revoltující akcionisty třeba na čas uvěznila či v krajním případě vyhnala do exilu. Při performancích akcionistů tenkrát třeba tekla krev a po zemi se válely vnitřnosti. Dnes je vídeňský akcionismus nejznámějším ryze rakouským avantgardním uměleckým směrem. ...

Výstava temných, fotograficky realistických obrazů rakouského umělce Gottfrieda Helnweina opanovala pro toto léto Galerii Rudolfinum. Výstava v Galerii Rudolfinum nazvaná Angels Sleeping nabízí průřez Helnweinovou malířskou tvorbou, byť uznání tento umělec získal nejprve jako autor kreseb. Podle kurátora výstavy Petra Nedomy je Helnweinova tvroba ojedinělá mimo jiné tím, že zásadní je pro ni jasně formulované téma a snaha oslovit široké publikum. "Je to určitý opak tendencí v české malbě, ale i v Německu či ve Francii nebo jinde, protipól do sebe zahleděného umění uzavřeného do kruhu svého autismu," říká Nedoma. Helnweinovi šlo podle kurátora vždy o to zasáhnout veřejnost, stále znovu vnášet do normalizovaného každodenního života rušivé elementy. ...

Gottfried Helnwein’s exhibition I Walk Alone is pretty unnerving, and that is his point. Large-scale photo-realistic paintings confront the viewer like a series of film stills forming a bizarre and disturbing sequence of nightmares. Using digital photography and computer-generated images combined with classical painting techniques, many of the images are only black and white, while others use one additional color, such as red, to dramatic and horrifying effect.
The images might be seen as bits of individual stories, or pieced together in a variety of frightful ways, or seen as a generalized narrative of brutality and terror, in which innocence is perhaps relative. We are all implicated in Helnwein’s unfolding dramas. ...

Un iperrealismo perturbante e sconvolgente è la marca di Gottfried Helnwein, pittore, fotografo e performer austriaco che mi era sconosciuto fino a ieri e che ho scoperto attraverso Stumble. Non sapevo neanche che fosse lui l’uomo che sta dietro a “The Golden Age of Grotesque”, progetto multimediale di Marilyn Manson e, a dire il vero, a prima vista, i suoi acquerelli li avevo scambiati per fotografie. ...