For Helnwein, the child is the symbol of innocence, but also of innocence betrayed. In today’s world, the malevolent forces of war, poverty, and sexual exploitation and the numbing, predatory influence of modern media assault the virtue of children. Robert Flynn Johnson, the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, has assembled a thought-provoking selection of Helnwein’s works and provided an insightful essay on his art in this exhibition catalogue.
Helnwein’s work concerning the child includes paintings, drawings, and photographs, and it ranges from subtle inscrutability to scenes of stark brutality.
Of course, brutal scenes—witness The Massacre of the Innocents—have been important and regularly visited motifs in the history of art. What makes Helnwein’s art significant is its ability to make us reflect emotionally and intellectually on the very expressive subjects he chooses. Many people feel that museums should be a refuge in which to experience quiet beauty divorced from the coarseness of the world. This notion sells short the purposes of art, the function of museums, and the intellectual curiosity of the public.
The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein will inspire and enlighten many; it is also sure to upset some. It is not only the right but the responsibility of the museum to present art that deals with important and sometimes controversial topics in our society. ...

..A clarity of vision in his subject matter was emerging in Helnwein's art that was to stay consistent throughout his career. His subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art, although it included self-portraits, is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead created the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.
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"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot, which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie."
Jean Cocteau ...

Jul 2-30 Summer Exhibition Includes works by William Crozier, Gottfried Helnwein and Sarah Walker. ...

E. Fischl, G. Helnwein, D. Hirst, J. Schnabel, A. Jones u.a. (-31.8.) ...

July – August 2004 ...

Christian Boltanski, Jochen Gerz, Gottfried Helnwein, Nobuyoshi Araki, Dennis Adams, Piotr Uklanski. und August Sander.

Gottfried Helnwein - portraitiert in der Serie „Faces“ Persönlichkeiten wie Michael Jackson, Willy Brandt, Maximilian Schell, Elton John, Andy Warhol, Leni Riefenstahl u.a.. Obgleich vielmals zuvor fotografiert und jedem aus den Medien bekannt, zeigen sie sich in den Bildern jenseits aller Eitelkeiten, in einer ungewohnten Offenheit und Ehrlichkeit, die geprägt ist von Verfall und Tod. ...

The 7th Annual West Hollywood Art Walk ...

group show ...

Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein’s painting reveals a boy keeling in bedtime prayer to a levitating vision of Donald Duck ...

Gesichter machen - Das Verschwinden des Portraits ...

Gottfried Helnwein, Sarah Corner, Peter Curling, Eoin De Leastar, Des Dillon, Glenn Fitzgerald, Brian Harte, Ella Kavanagh, John Keating, Jessica Roth, Dorin Saurus

Helnwein at Modernism Gallery San Francisco
Booth A25
Gala Preview Wednesday February 18. ...

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Instalacion Museografica Teatral ...

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On Sunday, November 9, at 7:00 p.m. the Museum of Tolerance commemorated the 65th anniversary of the infamous 1938 Nazi “Night of Broken Glass” (Kristallnacht) pogrom.
The Wiesenthal Center's observance of the 65th anniversary of "Kristallnacht" was highlighted by the presentation of the work of Gottfried Helnwein and the screening of "Ninth November Night," a documentary about the artist's commitment to remind the world of the Holocaust. ...

On Sunday, November 9, at 7:00 p.m. the Museum of Tolerance commemorates the 65th anniversary of the infamous 1938 Nazi “Night of Broken Glass” (Kristallnacht) program which targeted 1,000 synagogues in Germany and Austria and marked the beginning of the end of European Jewry.
The commemoration will be highlighted by the screening of a documentary by renowned Austrian artist, Gottfried Helnwein, 9th November Night, who has committed himself and his art to reminding the world of the Holocaust. The documentary is based upon his 1988 exhibit of seventeen children’s portraits that were displayed in commemoration of Kristallnacht in Cologne, Germany. Just days into the exhibit, these portraits were vandalized.. “The fury with which the neo-nazis reacted to these portraits is understandable inasmuch as it is the very same fury with which they have for years been fighting against The Diary of Anne Frank,” said famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. “The murder of children rouses abhorrence and conflict in every human, whether they are motivated by ideology or insanity. The urge to destroy has survived; the portraits bear witness to its rage.” ...

Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art
2625 Michigan Avenue, T3
Santa Monica, CA 90404 ...

exhibition-catalogue ...