Gottfried Helnwein Info

Texts and Essays

Albertina Museum Wien – January 1, 1970

250 000 Visitors Saw the Helnwein-Retrospective at the Albertina Museum

The Helnwein retrospective was the most successful exhibition of a living artist in the history of the Albertina.

Edition Braus – November 30, 2012

Malen heisst sich wehren: Gottfried Helnwein im Gespräch

by Oliver Spiecker

Ein Welt-Maler, der die Schrecken unserer Zeit auf die Pinselspitze treibt: „Malen heißt sich wehren.“ „Kunst ist für mich eine Waffe, mit der ich zurückschlagen kann.“ Helnwein ist ein Meister der Bild-Störung, mit Alarmknopf ins Unbewusste. Ein Kosmos-Kopf, der sich brillant zu artikulieren weiß. LOOK – DON’T LISTEN! ist das pointierte, provozierende Panorama seiner Lebens- und Weltanschauung, das Bekenntnis zu seinem „fast schon obsessiven Freiheits- und Gerechtigkeitswahn.“ Klartext über die Kunstszene mit kompromissloser Skepsis gegen die „Priesterschaft der Experten“: „Ich brauch niemanden, der mir sagt, was ich sehen, hören oder wahrnehmen soll.“ Beeindruckend kluge Erkenntnisse vor und hinter der Leinwand, von seiner düsteren Kindheit im Nachkriegs-Wien bis zur Gegenwart zwischen seinem Schloss in Irland und der Factory in Los Angeles.

Süddeutsche Zeitung – November 30, 2012

»Ich kann mich in kein System einfügen«, Interview mit Gottfried Helnwein

by Sven Michaelsen

Als Kind zerschnitt sich der Wiener Maler Gottfried Helnwein die Hände mit Rasierklingen. Durch Donald Duck entdeckte er die Kunst. Heute sind seine Horrorvisionen längst Kunstgeschichte. Ein Gespräch über die Abgründe eines ungewöhnlichen Lebens.

Bayerisches Fernsehen – June 22, 2010

TRAILER - "The Silence of Innocence" - The Helnwein-Documentary

Helnwein in German movie theatres
116 Min. Director: Claudia Schmid
'Die Stille der Unschuld' - Der Künstler Gottfried Helnwein (Germany 2009)
with English subtitles

filmsmela.com – June 18, 2010

Movie Review

"The Silence of Innocence" - The Helnwein-Documentary at German movie theaters.

Movie Review

Watch GermanTrailer. "The Silence of Innocence" - 116 min. Director: Claudia Schmid. Germany, 2010

www.booooooom.com – May 11, 2010

Gottfried Helnwein

Gottfried Helnwein is a painter, photographer, installation and performance artist who has created some of the most provocative images I’ve ever seen.

Toronto Star  – January 30, 2010

Brave Israeli opera radiates despair - Helnwein's realization takes the breath away

by William Littler , Music Columnist

Helnwein's realization of the final scene takes the breath away: a view of dozens of bloodied children's bodies, some of them hanging, some of them turning over and over in mid-air, as a vocal ensemble sings their words while kneeling on stage.
This vision connects eerily with an exhibition in the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre plaza, adapted from one the Austrian designer mounted in Cologne in 1988, marking the 50th anniversary of the Nazis' anti-Jewish Kristallnacht. It shows two rows of innocent, haunted-looking child's faces, one row with eyes open; the other with eyes closed, lined up as if in a concentration camp (Selektion is the exhibit's title).

 – April 1, 2009

"Helnwein - The Silence of Innocence"- video on Google

"Helnwein - The Silence Of Innocence" (Claudia Schmid, Germany 2008, 116 min), has been selected for the 24th international Munich Documentary Filmfestival.
Uncompromising, shocking images that bore deep into our collective subconscious and confront our greatest fears – the unihibited creative talent of artist Gottfried Helnwein.

www.helnwein-kind.de – January 25, 2009

The Child in the work of Gottfried Helnwein

New German Website - Das Kind im Werk von Gottfried Helnwein

The Child in the work of Gottfried Helnwein

"Helnwein is the next generation's final ally, a skilled provocateur forcing us to confront the legacy we have bequeathed upon our children. Helnwein is our chronicler, our conscience, the antidote to our failing memories. He refuses to let us forget."

Colin Berry
Artweek, California, 2004

Galerie Rudolfinum Prague – 1. Juli 2008

Angels sleeping - Gottfried Helnwein in the Rudolfinum Gallery

von www.prague.net

Works by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein are now to be seen in the Rudolfinum Gallery on the exhibition entitled Angels sleeping. He is a phenomenon in a field of hyperrealistic painting. Working in a technique of oil and acrylic painting, he makes extremely precise canvases of a big measure, based on photographs. Their topics are taken from history as well as from pop-culture and he also often deals with theme of a child in extreme situations. The realistic look of painting is startling; he is very precise and technically extremely skilful. But the paintings look bit too strange... well, but I let you to make your opinion on your own, after the visit of the exhibition.