Gottfried Helnwein Info

As long ago as 1963 a fellow-artist and I imagined the horrible future of free-lance artist.
The topic of our discussion was not so much finances as the necessity of letting go and totally abandoning oneself.
At the time I had the idea of inventing something like a "fitness training of geniuses".
In retrospect I must say that I know very few artists who have persevered in this imaginary training programme.
Gottfried Helnwein is one of them.

The enigma of Helnwein's paintings always has to do with guilt and atonement, perpetrators and victims, accusation and remorse. He has never escaped the Christian world of ideas and images of his childhood, but instead has used it for his own artistic purposes.

In addition to over 130 Signac drawings, the Arts Center has amassed a world-renowned collection of fellow Europeans' works on paper.

Helnweins künstlerische Praxis beruht auf der Erkenntnis der grundsätzlich unterschiedlichen Seinsformen von Fotografie und Malerei. Einerseits schöpft er als einer der konsequentesten Multimedia-Künstler überhaupt die spezifischen Möglichkeiten der jeweils verwendeten Medien bis zu den Grenzen ihrer Horizonte aus -- neben Fotografie und Malerei die Zeichnung und die Performance -, spiegelt sie andererseits, aber auch gewissermassen ineinander, so dass sie sich gegenseitig erhellen und ihre Wirkung steigern.

I'll never forget the sensation I had at the unveiling of Gottfried Helnwein's "Kindskopf" in the Russian Museum. And not just because this enormous canvas (six metres in height, four in breadth), well-known from reproductions, seemed to operate in a whole new way in the real, quasi-monumental space of the museum's "Concrete Hall", originally intended for the demonstration of gigantic sculptural compositions. I realised that I was looking at the inner content of this innovative picture from a whole new point of view.

Much like Joseph Beuys, who opened new, unexpected, and far-reaching spheres for art,
Gottfried Helnwein has made works that extend beyond the art scene into the social and political realm.
Like his predecessor , he has moved beyond the realm of pure aesthetics, engaging his art into the everyday world. Furthermore his principal interest is not to express personal feelings and emotions, but to make statements that go beyond the individual.
He wants to see his work not trapped on the walls of museums and galleries, but revealed in the public domain.
He expects his work to intervene in the social sphere and to have a direct impact on the life of his time.

Gottfried Helnwein - A Concept Artist before the Turn of the Millennium

Is it sheer coincidence that Gottfried Helnwein, the Austrian artist, created a portrait of both the German and the American? Coincidence, that he captured Warhol as a disturbing spectre on photograph, but painted Beuys? And that he then photographed the painted portrait of Beuys in the hands of Arno Breker, Adolf Hitler's favourite sculptor?
There are weighty reasons for considering Helnwein the legitimate heir to Beuys and Warhol.

German Painter Gottfried Helnwein has gained international renown for his chilling anti-Fascist and anti-militarist canvases.

Ludwig Museum für Internationale Kunst,
Chinesisches Kunstmuseum, Peking, 1996

Geschenke der Freundschaft

Gottfried Helnwein