Gottfried Helnwein Archive – THE AMERICAN PAINTINGS

article index

TANK Magazine – February 1, 2000

one man show at Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, 2000

THE AMERICAN PAINTINGS

by Gottfried Helnwein

These paintings are about America, I guess from a very European point of view.
They're based on photographs, mainly newspaper photographs, of the Fifties and Sixties from archives in New York and L.A. Most people in these pictures are real people, caught in some long forgotten, petty events.
I rearranged the scenes, introduced new characters, and created new relationships and contexts. And then I painted them in black and blue.
That's how I remember America back then in the early Fifties in Vienna, where I was born. The big war had ended a few years ago, but the city still seemed undecided as to whether this was the end of the world or if life should go on.
It was a strange, sad and surreal world. The streets were empty, the houses dark - many of them in ruins from the bombings.
The few people I saw seemed ugly, clumsy, and depressed.
I never saw anybody laughing and I never heard anybody sing. It was a world without sound and colour. Everything moved in slow motion, like slime. We had no phones, no television, no cars, no music, no pictures, except the paintings of tortured people in the Roman Catholic church which made a deep impression on me, haunting me in the sleepless nights of my childhood limbo.
And then, without any warning, suddenly there was America.
When I saw the first picture of Elvis I was in a state of shock, because I couldn't believe that a human being could be so beautiful.
That was the beginning of the never-ending flood of American images that suddenly came over us and started to penetrate and transform everything.

The world that we inherited from our parents was a depleted, exhausted, and empty place. Most of the artists, writers, and intellectuals had left the country or were dead. The museums had been looted by the Nazis and everything that they called "degenerate art" was gone. All the books had been burned. And now all the images, pictures and designs of the Third Reich that had suffused everything for so many years had also been trashed overnight. It was a pretty empty place now.

And out of this void we grew up into a world of wonders that we knew only from black and white movies and photographs where everything was impeccably staged and arranged. Shiny cars that looked like spaceships; cops and celestial, pale girls in perfect light were frozen into amazing poses always in the right spot of the picture, casting long, black shadows. How these guys were holding their cigarettes and what they did with the smoke was a piece of art. The houses and the streets of New York and LA became our streets. We knew all the details of the interior of the American middle-class home.

But we also saw the mountains of corpses in Auschwitz filmed by cameramen of the U.S. army. We started to see the whole world through American eyes in newspaper pictures and movies. These images introduced us to a two-dimensional world without boundaries where fact and fiction, future and past have equal rights and where distance and time have no meaning.

I think there will never be another time where people can get rid of some unwanted reality by just burning pictures - simply because there are too many now and their number is growing in a never-ending explosion. The pictures are not under our control anymore.

The invention of photography has changed the course and logic of art and history. For visual artists the basic rules were turned upside down, and ever since they have been struggling to find and redefine their position. I think photography is the key medium and I'm fascinated by its almost unlimited possibilities to shift and twist reality.

My paintings do not intend to tell a story. Maybe they are freezing the moment just before it's going to happen or a moment in the aftermath. The viewers have to complete the narrative themselves. And, if there is a conclusion, then it is outside of the painting.

Gottfried Helnwein, 2000

For more information about the artist, the following websites might be helpful:

www.helnwein.com
The official website of Gottfried Helnwein.
The art of Gottfried Helnwein and a summary of essays and texts about the artist.
Press and media, interviews, Helnwein books, catalogues, exhibitions, collections, biography, quotes and bibliography, art works, Helnwein-archive and links.
English and German.
http://www.helnwein.com

www.helnwein.de
Die offizielle Website Gottfried Helnweins in deutsch.
Ein Überblick über das künstlerische Werk und die wichtigsten deutschsprachigen Publikationen von und über Gottfried Helnwein, Printmedien und elektronische Medien,
Tageszeitungen, Periodoka, Bücher, Kataloge, Interviews, Zitate, Biographie, Bibliographie, Ausstellungsverzeichnis, Verzeichnis der Werke in Museen und öffentlichen Sammlungen, News update.
The art of Gottfried Helnwein, paintings, Photography, drawings, biography, exhibitions, Gottfried Helnwein-archive, collections, bibliography, essays, quotes and press, event calendar, news update about the artist, guestbook, gallery and links.
It is possible to choose German version only.
http://www.helnwein.de

www.helnwein.com.fr
Le site officiel francais de Gottfried Helnwein.
http://www.helnwein.com.fr

russia.helnwein.com
The official Russian website of Gottfried Helnwein, language: Russian, Cyrillic characters
http://russia.helnwein.com

japan.helnwein.com
The official Japanese website, language: Japanese
http://japan.helnwein.com

www.helnwein.org
This is the Gottfried Helnwein archive for research and educational purposes.
It includes important texts of and about the artist Gottfried Helnwein, biography, bibliography, exhibitions, collections, paintings, drawings and works on paper, photography, installations and performances and his work for theater, opera and film.
http://www.helnwein.org

www.helnwein.net
Artist Gottfried Helnwein and the internet.
A survey of the most important Gottfried Helnwein web-sites, links, information on where to find the art-work, essays, exhibitions, museums, galleries, biography, bibliography and the Helnwein-archives.
http://www.helnwein.net

www.helnweingallery.com
The Helnwein Gallery offering Fine Art prints, limited editions, signed and numbered by the artist, mixed media works on canvas, drawings and works on paper, photographs, monographs, books and catalogues of Gottfried Helnwein.

www.helnwein-archive.com
The Gottfried Helnwein Archive with the most important texts, essays, interviews, press and media articles.
http://www.helnwein-archive.com

www.helnwein-archiv.de
Das Gottfried Helnwein Archiv mit den wichtigsten deutschsprachigen
Texten, Essays, Rezensionen, Interviews und Presseartikeln.
(The German Gottfried Helnwein web-archive)
http://www.helnwein-archiv.de

museum.helnwein.com
The old version of the official website of Gottfried Helnwein.
http://museum.helnwein.com

www.helnwein.info
The essays and texts about artist Gottfried Helnwein.
Press and media, interviews, books, catalogues, quotes and bibliography, Gottfried Helnwein-archive and links to other Helnwein-sites.
English and German.
http://www.helnwein.info

www.helnweinreview.com
A summary of essays and texts about artist Gottfried Helnwein.
Press and media, interviews, Gottfried Helnwein books, catalogues, quotes and bibliography, art works, Helnwein-archive and links.
English and German.
http://www.helnweinreview.com

www.helnweincomic.homestead.com
Helnwein's painting "Micky I" in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and other comic-related artworks by Helnwein. "Memories of Duckburg", an essay by Gottfried Helnwein, Helnwein's organizing of the first retrospective museum exhibition of Donald Duck and the Art of Carl Barks and a conversation with Carl Barks. Books, catalogues, press and media.
German and English.
http://www.helnweincomic.homestead.com

Gottfried Helnwein Press
Selected articles about Gottfried Helnwein in Newspapers and periodicals, in chronological order.
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-press.com

Gottfried Helnwein Essays
A selection of texts and essays about Gottfried Helnwein, in chronological order.
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-essays.com

Gottfried Helnwein Interviews
A selection of Interviews with and by Gottfried Helnwein in chronological order
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interviews.com

Gottfried Helnwein Bibliography
A summary of Monographs, books and catalogues of the artist Gottfried Helnwein in chronological order.
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-bibliography.com

Gottfried Helnwein Exhibitions
One-man shows, group-shows, installations and performances of Gottfried Helnwein in chronological order.
Museums, Galleries and in public spaces.
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-exhibitions.com

http://www.gottfried-helnwein-online.com
Gottfried Helnwein and the internet. A summary of the most important websites of Gottfried Helnwein and other websites referring to the art of Gottfried Helnwein.

Gottfried Helnwein im Gespräch mit Andreas Mäckler
Die Interviews mit Gottfried Helnwein fanden statt am 13. / 14. Juli und am 21. / 22. September 1990
http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interview.com

Theater: Gottfried Helnwein and Hans Kresnik
Dokumentation der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Gottfried Helnwein und Hans Kresnik
Documentation of the collaboration between Gottfried Helnwein and Hans Kresnik
http://www.homestead.com/gottfriedhelnwein/kresnik.html

www.helnwein-theater.com
Gottfried Helnwein and his work for theater, opera, ballett and film.
Stage design, costumes, make-up, Theater-posters.
Macbeth, The Rake's progress, Sade and Marat, Pasolini, Oedipus, Die Hamletmaschine... Heiner Mueller, Hans Kresnik, Maximilian Schell, Juergen Flimm, Peter Zadek...
http://www.helnwein-theater.com

www.helnwein-music.com
The art of Gottfried Helnwein and music.
Stage design, costumes and make-up for Opera, dance-theater, video-clips.
Helnwein art on Record- and CD-covers.
The collaboration with Marilyn Manson.
"IT'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL. Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary Art", the museum-show.
The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Beck, Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley, Rammstein, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Scorpions, and others.
Essays, press and media.
http://www.helnwein-music.com

www.helnwein-museum.com
Gottfried Helnwein, group-shows, one-man shows, installations and performances at museums.
Essays and interviews. Monographs, books, catalogues, press and media.
http://www.helnwein-museum.com

www.helnwein-photography.com
The photographic work of Gottfried Helnwein.
Silver-prints, polaroid, cibachrome, digital-photography and mixed media.
Exhibitions at museums and galleries, and installations in public spaces. Essays and interviews. Books, catalogues, press and media.
http://www.helnwein-photography.com

This is the printable version of our site.
http://museum.helnwein.com/helnwein/print/index.html

www.gottfriedhelnwein.ie
The official Irish website of Gottfried Helnwein.
Gottfried Helnwein lives and works in Ireland since 1997.
http://www.gottfriedhelnwein.ie/country/ireland_special/abstracts_1.html

www.gottfried-helnwein.at
Die offizielle Österreichische Website von Gottfried Helnwein
http://www.gottfried-helnwein.at/country/austria_special/abstracts_1.html

www.helnwein.ch
Die offizielle Schweizer Website von Gottfried Helnwein in deutscher Sprache.
http://www.helnwein.ch/country/helvetia_special/abstracts_1.html

www.gottfried-helnwein.ch
The official Swiss website of Gottfried Helnwein, language: French
http://www.gottfried-helnwein.ch/home/home/home.html

www.helnwein.com.mx
The official Mexican website of Gottfried Helnwein in Spanish.
http://www.helnwein.com.mx

Mirror Sites

http://www.helnwein-gallery.com

http://www.gottfried-helnwein.com

http://www.gottfried-helnwein.de

http://www.helnweinreviews.com

http://www.helnwein-info.de