Gottfried Helnwein
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Gottfried Helnwein (born October 8, 1948 in Vienna) is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, photographer, installation and performance artist.
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[edit] Life & works
Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien). He was awarded the Master-class prize (Meisterschulpreis) of the University of Visual Art, Vienna, the Kardinal-König prize and the Theodor-Körner prize.
He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation- and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media.
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.
Viennese-born Helnwein is part of a tradition going back to the 18th century, to which Messerschmidt's grimacing sculptures belong. One sees, too, the common ground of his works with those of Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler, two other Viennese, who display their own bodies in the frame of reference of injury, pain, and death. One can also see this fascination for body language goes back to the expressive gesture in the work of Egon Schiele. [1]
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.[2]
Another strong element in his work are comics. Helnwein has sensed the superiority of cartoon life over real life ever since he was a child. A biographical story, explains his obsession with Disney characters. Growing up in dreary, destructed post-war Vienna, the young boy was surrounded by unsmiling people haunted by a recent past they could never speak about. What changed his life was the first German-language Disney comic book that his father brought home one day. Opening the book felt like finally arriving in a world where he belonged:
"...a decent world where one could get flattened by steam-rollers and perforated by bullets without serious harm. A world in which the people still looked proper, with yellow beaks or black knobs instead of noses." (Helnwein[3])[4]
'Helnwein’s oeuvre embraces total antipodes: The trivial, for example, the Disney-culture[5], alternates with visions of spiritual doom, the divine in the child contrasts with horror-images of child-abuse. But violence remains to be his basic theme, - the physical and the emotional suffering, inflicted by one human being unto another.'[6]
Helnwein is also known for his stage and costume designs of theater, ballet and opera productions. Amongst them Hamburg State Opera, Volksbühne Berlin, Stuttgart National Theatre, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Los Angeles Opera[7] and Israeli Opera Tel Aviv.
Among his better known works is a spoof of the famous Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, entitled Boulevard of Broken Dreams. This painting also inspired the Green Day song of the same name [8]
Helnwein has been an active member of the Church of Scientology since 1978, [9] and has worked closely with their OSA and Narconon organizations. [10]
Helnwein moved to Dublin, Ireland in 1997. In 1999 he bought a castle in county Tipperary, where he now lives with his family. [11] In 2004 Helnwein received Irish citizenship [12]
He has 4 Children with his wife Renate: Cyril, Mercedes, Ali Elvis and Wolfgang Amadeus, who are all artists.
[edit] Chronology
- 1982 Helnwein was offered a chair by the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, which he declined.
- 1985 one man show at the Albertina, Vienna.
Rudolf Hausner, recommended Helnwein as his successor as professor of the master-class for painting at the University of Visual Art in Vienna, but Helnwein left Vienna and moved to Germany. - The film "Helnwein", produced by the German and Austrian National televisions, received the Adolf-Grimme prize for best television-documentary, the Eduard-Rhein prize and the Goldenen Kader award[13].
- Besides his realistic work, Helnwein also began to develop abstract, expressive styles of painting during this period.
- 1988, In remembrance of "Kristallnacht"[14], the actual beginning of the Holocaust - 50 years earlier, Helnwein erected a 100 meter long installation in the city center of Cologne, between Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral. Just days into the exhibit, these portraits were vandalized by unknown persons, symbolically cutting the throats of the depicted children's faces.[11][12]
Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work. - 1990 Helnwein began to focus on digital photography and computer-generated images which he often combines with classical oil-painting techniques.
- 1994 Stage design, costumes, and make-up for Macbeth, a production of Hans Kresnik's Choreographic Theatre at Volksbühne Berlin[15]. The play was awarded the Theatre Prize of Berlin.
- Helnwein curated and organized the first Museum-exhibition of Disney-artist Carl Barks, the creator of the Donald Duck universe, Uncle Scrooge and Duckburg. The retrospective was shown in 10 European Museums and seen by more than 400 000 visitors[13].
- 1997 Moved to Ireland[16].
- In the same year the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg organizes a Helnwein retrospective and publishes a monograph of the artist[17].
- 2000 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other American museums show Helnwein's work.
- 2001 Stage and costume design for the Hamburgische Staatsoper of Igor Stravinsky’s opera "The Rake's Progress"[18].
- 2002 He established a studio in Los Angeles.
- 2003 Premiere of the Helnwein documentary Neunter November Nacht (Ninth November Night) at the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles[19].
- Collaboration with Marilyn Manson[14] on the multi-media project "The Golden Age of Grotesque"[20] and video productions like Doppelherz und mOBSCENE.
- Installation and performance with Manson at the Volksbühne Berlin.[21]
- Collaboration with Sean Penn on the Music Video 'The Barry Williams Show' by Peter Gabriel [22]
- 2004 "The Child" one-man show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor[23], San Francisco Fine Arts Museums. The exhibition is seen by 130 000 visitors.
- Collaboration with Maximilian Schell for the Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalier[24]” at the Los Angeles Opera and the Israeli Opera Tel Aviv.
- Helnwein receives Irish citizenship.
- 2005 Marilyn Manson marries Dita von Teese at Helnwein's castle[25] in Tipperary, Ireland. Helnwein is best man.
Helnwein retrospective at the National Art Museum in Beijing. - 2006 "Face it", one man show, Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz[26]
Gottfried Helnwein currently lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles.
[edit] Quotes
William Burroughs said of Helnwein:
- "It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition: to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows. Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition." [27]
Helnwein is one of the few exciting painters we have today.
Norman Mailer
Well, the world is a haunted house, and Helnwein at times is our tour guide through it. In his work he is willing to take on the sadness, the irony, the ugliness and the beauty. But not all of Gottfried's work is on a canvas. A lot of it is the way he's approached life. And it doesn't take someone knowing him to know that. You take one look at the paintings and you say "this guy has been around." You can't sit in a closet - and create this. This level of work is earned.
Sean Penn[28]
Gottfried Helnwein is my mentor. His fight for expression and stance against oppression are reasons why I chose him as an artistic partner. An artist that doesn't provoke will be invisible. Art that doesn't cause strong emotions has no meaning. Helnwein has that internalized.
Marilyn Manson
Helnwein's subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead creates the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.
Robert Flynn Johnson, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco [29]
Warhol is the pre-Helnwein ...
Dieter Ronte, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna
[edit] Works in collections
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Denver Art Museum
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne
- The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
- Albertina Museum, Vienna
- National Art Museum of China, Beijing
- Museum Folkwang, Essen
- Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
- 21 Century Museum Louisville, Kentucky
- Polaroid Collection Photographic Resource Center, Boston University
- San Jose Museum of Art
- Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock*
- Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz, Austria
- Essl Collection, Museum for Contemporary Art, Vienna
- Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland
- Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne
- ZKM, Center for Art and Media Museum, Karlsruhe
- Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland
- Benedikt Taschen Collection, Cologne, Los Angeles
- Robert Wilson Collection, New York
- Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, Denver
- Thom Weisel Collection, San Francisco
- Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection, New York
- Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, London
- Ben Kingsley Collection, London
[edit] Selected publications
- The Child, Works by Gottfried Helnwein
One man exhibition 2004
San Francisco Fine Arts Museums
Robert Flynn Johnson, Harry S. Parker
Robert Flynn Johnson, Helnwein
(ISBN 0-88401-112-7) - Face it, Works by Gottfried Helnwein
One man exhibition 2006
Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz
Stella Rollig, Thomas Edlinger, Nava Semel
Stella Rollig, Helnwein
Christian Brandstätter, Wien 2006
(ISBN 3-902510-39-0) - Helnwein, Monograph
Gottfried Helnwein, Retrospective 1997
State Russian Museum St. Petersburg
Alexander Borovsky, Curator for Contemporary Art
Klaus Honnef, Peter Selz, William Burroughs,
Heiner Müller, H.C. Artmann.
Klaus Honnef, Helnwein (ISBN 3-930775-31-X)
Koenemann, 1999 (ISBN 3-8290-1448-1) - Helnwein - Ninth November Night, 2003
The Documentary
Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles
Johnathon Keats, Simon Wiesenthal
Johnathon Keats, Helnwein
[edit] Further reading
Kenneth Baker: "Dark and detached, the art of Gottfried Helnwein demands a response." San Francisco Chronicle, 9 August 2004. [30]
Robert F. Johnson, San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, Legion of Honor: 'The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein', one man show, 31 July 2004 — 28 November 2004. [31]
Julia Pascal, 'Nazi dreaming', New Statesman, UK, Monday 10 April 2006[32]
Aiden Dunne, 'Cutting Edge', The Irish Times, 1. August 2001. [33]
Klaus Honnef, 'The Subversive Power of Art, Gottfried Helnwein - A Concept Artist before the Turn of the Millennium'. University Heidelberg, 1997.[34]
Mark Swed: 'Strange, but True - Gottfried Helnwein's wondrous staging of "Der Rosenkavalier", Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2005. [35]
Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, 'Shared Reading: Gottfried Helnwein', A Justice Site, California State University, Dominguez Hills, University of Wisconsin, Parkside, 2004. [36]
[edit] References
- ^ Roland Recht, 'Der Untermensch', Gottfried Helnwein, one-man show, Musée d’Art Moderne, Strasbourg, 1987
- ^ Gwen F. Chanzit, 'In Limbo'. An exhibition of works from the Denver Art Museum's gift of contemporary art from Vicki and Kent Logan. Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, School of Art and Art History, University of Denver, 2005
- ^ Gottfried Helnwein, 'Memories of Duckburg', translation from German: 'Micky Maus unter dem roten Stern', Zeit-Magazin, Hamburg, 12.May.1989. [1]
- ^ Petra Halkes, 'A Fable in Pixels and Paint - Gottfried Helnwein's American Prayer'. Image & Imagination, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005 (ISBN 0-7735-2969-1)
- ^ Alicia Miller, 'The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection at SFMOMA', San Fracisco Museum of Modern Art, Artweek, 20. August 2000. [2]
- ^ Gregory Fuller, 'Endzeit-Stimmung - Düstere Bilder in Goldener Zeit', Du Mont, Cologne, 1994.[3]
- ^ Anthony Tommasini, A 'Rosenkavalier' Without Ham and Schmaltz?, New York Times, 31 May 2005.[4]
- ^ Green Day: American Idiots & the New Punk Explosion, The Disinformation Company, 2006, - Page 198, (ISBN 193285732X) [[5]]
- ^ http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/g/gottfried-helnwein.html
- ^ Peter Reichelt, Helnwein and Scientology (H A S):Lies and Treason, 1997. [6]
- ^ Roland Mischke, 'Aefflinge und Tschandalen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11. October 1988.[7]
- ^ Simon Wiesenthal, 'Thoughts', Ninth November Night, Installation by Gottfried Helnwein, 09. November 1988[8]
- ^ The Art of Gottfried Helnwein and the Comic Culture, The Carl Barks exhibition, www.helnweincomic.homestead.com [9]
- ^ Evie Sullivan, Interview with Marilyn Manson, Inrock, Japan, July, 2004[10]
