Scratches and scrapes a series of self-portraits and child-photos with luminous stigma.

1971 Kardinal König Prize.

In the exhibition "Zoetus" at the Kunsthalle "Künstlerhaus" in Vienna unidentified people put stickers with the words "Entartete Kunst" (degenerate art) on Helnwein's paintings.

Founding member of the artist group "Zoetus" in Vienna.
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At the opening of an exhibition at Galerie D in Mödling, near Vienna, the mayor has Helnwein's paintings confiscated by the police.
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First performances ("Aktions") with children. At first in his studio and later in the streets of Vienna.
In his essay "The Divided Self", art-historian Peter Gorsen states: "As shown by his many actions with children in public, the group portrait with children has become a permanent subject for Helnwein. His commitment to the rights of children has nothing to do with "infantomania", as manifested in a socially isolated "children's culture", in a commercialized "children's media", in the child as a pedagogical subject, and in the ideological transfiguration of one's own childhood.

Helnwein must also be set apart from Viennese Actionism as he does not reduce the child's body to mere aesthetic material (as in the "material actions" of Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, and Otto Muehl), but instead endows it with a symbolic function in representing defenceless, sacrificed man. The sexualistic concept of the child in (Freud-influenced) "Viennese Actionism" is countered by the moralist and utopian Helnwein with the child as a sexless salvation figure. The tendency to a patriarchal transfiguration and idealization of an innocent, sacrificing child-man embracing children and artists as the sole creative interest group is the main feature distinguishing Helnwein's world of pictures from the pan-sexualism and libido anarchy of the Vienna action group of old." ...

1970 Prize of the Academy for Fine Art, Vienna (Meisterschul-Preis).

Works on a series of hyper-realistic paintings of wounded children..
Intensive research into the various forms of trivial aesthetics such as comics, advertising, and film; puts this experience into his work. Watercolor: "Unkeusches Kind" (Unchaste Child), "Peinlich" (Embarrassing), "Gemeines Kind" (Mean Child), "Der Eingriff" (Intrusion). First oil paintings: "Mutter, Du hier?" (Mother, Is It You?); "Führer, wir danken Dir!" (Führer, We Thank You!). ...

Helnwein marries Ilse R.
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First one man show at Galerie Atrium, Vienna.
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First photographic self-portraits with bandages and surgical instruments.
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1969 to 1973 Helnwein studies painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
It is the same University where in 1907 and 1908, a young struggling artist by the name of Adolf Hitler was twice denied admission for art studies. ...

Helnwein begins to work on a series of hyper-realistic watercolor-paintings of bandaged and wounded children.
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Helnwein travels to Istanbul.
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1968 Walks with his friend Manfred Deix from Venice to Vienna over several days without eating or sleeping.
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Helnwein cuts his hand with a razor blade and with his own blood paints a picture of Adolf Hitler ("Führer"). The Professors are discomposed and the school administration confiscates the painting.
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1966 First "Aktions" for small audiences.
Helnwein cuts his face and hands with razor blades, etching- and wood-engraving tools. First bandaging happenings. ...

1965 to 1969 Studies at the "Higher Federal Institution for Graphic Education and Experimentation" in Vienna .
("Höhere Bundes-Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, Wien" ) ...

1960 - 1965 Helnwein tries different high-schools but has no idea what this is all about and fails completely.
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Strict Roman Catholic upbringing.
Kindergarten with nuns, becomes altar boy, goes to school with the "School-brothers", Jesuits... ...