helnwein archive

German artist Neo Rauch's muted, unfinished pastiches circa 1945 create a vague sense of nostalgia for some innocent time gone by ("Spur" 1998 and "Light Rays" 1997) and luckily the DAM has one of his works on display as part of the Modern collection on the 3rd floor of the Hamilton building. Contrasting Rauch's naivete was my favorite piece in the show, Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein's "Epiphany; Adoration of the Magi," a twisted take on the Magi (Wise Men of the East) offering gifts unto baby Jesus, however the Magi are played by Nazi officers and the baby Jesus by an infant Hitler. I found the piece hypnotic and chilling: Helnwein forces us to reconsider that much of the historic religious and military imagery we have been exposed to is just as manipulative as his modern re-appropriation. [Note, both Rauch (9/20) and Helnwein (12/13) will be in Denver speaking as part of the DAM's "Artists on Art" series.]

The Radar exhibit showing Epiphany, the Gottfried Helnwein work, at the Denver Art Museum closes after this weekend.
Fortunately, the DAM is free all weekend, so Colorado residents still have a chance to view the amazing piece.

Rendons à César ce qui est à César, ou plutôt à Gottfried ce qui appartient à Helnwein. Eh oui, le magnifique avatar derrière lequel je cache comme un pleutre ma face veule et fallote de bloggeur anonyme n'est autre qu'un auto-portrait du délirant artiste austro-irlandais Gottfried Helnwein intutilé Night in Shangri-La I.
Vous me direz sans doute : "ton Gottfried Helnwein a l'air d'un vieux soixante-huitard désabusé et froissé". Et je vous répondrai : normal, puisque c'en est un! Il naquit en 1948 à Vienne, capitale culturelle s'il en est, ce qui faisait de lui une proie particulièrement facile, 20 ans plus tard, pour les idées progressistes, la révolution sexuelle et toutes ces insouciantes conneries au patchouli. D'autant plus que le jeune homme suivit à la fin des anneés 60 une formation à l'université d'Art Visuel de Vienne, d'où il ressortit tout de même avec un prestigieux prix. La pente était fatale : il devait devenir un artiste azimuté. Fidèle au précepte socratique d'un fameux philosophe teuton à moustaches, il devint donc ce qu'il était, ce qui est toujours plus facile à dire qu'à faire. Mais Gottfried n'était pas du genre à faire du macramé ou à peindre des grosses fleurs dégueus sur des vans Volkswagen! Non, lui son trip du moment, c'était plutôt les peintures hyper-réalistes représentant des enfants mutilés. Chacun son truc, hein...

"Donald Duck ... and the duck became human" is the title of the exhibition about the drawings and poetic work of Carl Barks at the Caricature Museum Krems (Lower Austria) from 25 March to 4 November 2007. Barks, who is one of the most eminent American artists of the 20th century, was a leading cartoonist of Walt Disney.
The about 250 works displayed in Krems are loans from international private collections. They include rare original pages of comic books, personal letters as well as the desk of the artist. The exhibition was conceived exclusively for the Caricature Museum Krems by Gottfried Helnwein. This is the first time that Bark's body of work is presented in Austria.

The Denver Art Museum's year-long lecture series, which features a lineup of major international contemporary artists with works on view in the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, concludes with Gottfried Helnwein.
Helnwein's hyperrealistic style seems perfectly suited to his sense of being a "witness" to his times: "That's my duty, my responsibility," he has said, adding that one role of art is to 'force people to look at things they would rather not look at."

His early work consists mainly of hyper-realistic watercolors, depicting wounded children, as well as performances - often with children - in public spaces. Helnwein is a conceptual artist, concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. As a result of this, his work is often considered provocative and controversial.
Helnwein's subject matter involves the complexities of the human condition. His disturbing yet provocative images of physically and emotionally wounded children have been seen as metaphors for larger global issues. He portrays the innocence of adolescence against the backdrop of historical events like the Holocaust to highlight the fragility of humanity in an unstable world.

Born in Austria (1948), Helnwein now lives between Ireland and the USA and has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the U.S. In an internationally acclaimed career, which has spanned over 30 years, Helnwein has produced work in a range of media including painting, drawing, photography, performance, large-scale public installations, set design and film. Well known for his provocative imagery, Helnwein's earlier work referenced Nazi Europe. Major exhibitions of Helnwein's work have been held worldwide, most recently at the Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz and at The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Unter dem Titel "Face it" präsentiert Gottfried Helnwein eine Ausstellung im Lentos Museum. 40 seiner Arbeiten werden zu sehen sein und sein schaffen dokumentieren. Gottfried Helnwein ist untrennbar mit hyperrealistischen, oft unerhörten Darstellungen verbunden. Der gerne als "Schockmaler" oder "Provokateur" etikettierte Künstler präsentiertab morgen seine Werke im Linzer Lentos Museum. Es handelt sich dabei um die erste museale Schau des gebürtigen Wieners, seit er mitte der 80er-Jahre Österreich den Rücken gekehrt hat. Er ist seit damals in Irland und Los Angeles ansässig. Es werden rund 40 Arbeiten aus alles Schaffensperioden seit den frühen 70er-Jahren gezeigt. Dabei zieht sich das Sujet des menschlichen Gesichts als Leitmotiv durch das Gesamtwerk. Malerei und Zeichnung sind ebenso vertreten wie zum Teil malerisch bearbeitete digitale Fotografie.

Gottfried Helnwein: Face It
Opening 9 March 2006, Exhibition 10 March - 5 June 2006

In Spring 2006 an extensive show of work by Gottfried Helnwein is presented in the large exhibition hall of the Lentos Museum. Lentos thus organizes the artist's first museum show in Austria since he left the land of his birth in the mid-1980s Helnwein was born in Vienna in 1948. After spending years in Germany, Helnwein now lives in Los Angeles and Ireland.
In Austria Helnwein is still remembered as a "provocateur" and "shock artist", as which he established himself a quarter of a century ago. The name Helnwein then stood for hyperreal depictions of wounded and deformed people, often children, and for citations from pictures from popular culture,

On Saturday, after five solid years together and a full year's engagement (with a 7-carat antique European round-cut diamond ring to prove it), Marilyn Manson and Dita von Teese got married in front of 60 celebrity friends, including the likes of Lisa Marie Presley and CSI's Eric Szmanda. The event occurred over several days in and around a castle in County Tipperary, Ireland. Castle Gurteen, home of the couple's friend, Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, was said to have been lit by the great-grandchildren of Hitler's architect, Albert Speers. And Manson had promised "children in makeup, dressed in these wonderful 19th century outfits, serving absinthe frappe."