Listen. I tried very hard to think up both a concise and comprehensive bio about Gottfried Helnwein, the artist whose work is featured exclusively throughout our debut album, but it is virtually impossible to wrap my tiny arms around this guy's legacy in one email. And it'd be an insult to try. So I'll just say the following, and let your pending curiosty to explore his body of work speak the rest:
Mark my words, someday Helnwein will immortally reside in art history textbooks, right next to Van Gogh and Warhol. ...

...the last room was dedicated to contemporary artists with really good choices, there's even a Warhol Donald Duck canvas, and also a beautiful piece of Gottfried Helnwein which I happen to have been loving for years, "American Prayer". ...

I went to the Denver Art Museum today to see the newly opened expansion and in particular, the Radar collection. Very inspiring work, I have to say they are the most interesting and provocative pieces I've seen on display in Denver, ever. My favorite pieces were the works by Damien Hirst and the "Adoration of the Magi" by Gottfried Helnwein. ...

Gottfried Helnwein's Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) is a strange takeoff on a traditional New Testament theme in art. The work depicts a Madonnalike mother displaying her baby to attentive Nazi officers, Painted in hyperrealist grisaille with chiaroscuro effects, the work resembles an old documentary photograph made huge. The eerie, sinister overtones are unmistakable. Who is this mother? What do these officers want with her and her child? What kind of official paper might the officer on the left hold in his hand and what might be its result? Helnwein, characteristically, presents us with an ambiguous, haunting image and leaves us to wonder about its meaning...
With its huge size, hyperrealist style, and disturbing content, this unsettling work bestows a psychological anxiety accompanied by a strong magnetic pull. Confronting it, we tend to stare-entranced by both its beauty and its seductive, malevolent overtones... ...

Adoration of the Magi (1496) by Filippino Lippi - Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) 1996 by Gottfried Helnwein.
If you noticed the completion dates, you would be correct to count 500 years difference between them. Considering Helnwein body of work, I don't think his 1996 completion date is entirely coincidental. Is there a meaning behind the date? Probably, but you will have to ask him. On the other hand, there were quite a few "Adoration of Magi" paintings and I am just putting too much thought into the two I found the most interesting. But then again, art is very subjective and I have chosen to give meaning to these two works of art and hence find the 500 years relevant. ...

{i am a madwoman right now. soon enough i'll burn out/fade away.}
{& yes, this was a school assignment, so kill me.} ...

THE SYMBOLISM OF GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN ...

...

He just crashed very high into my favorite painters ever list. So impressive, check out the rest of his work here.
::update:: Well maybe you're better off NOT to check it, at least not the stuff before 2005. The 2005 stuff I LOVE.
But the stuff before that, maybe a matter of taste, but I just discovered he also made really sick disturbing stuff that's just sick sick sick that I think is just so disturbing I don't even want to link it here (it's at his watercolors section "the intrusion", most specifically, well most of that page in general actually.). Why!? Whyyy? How can that be! ...

целую, князь ([info]activatemorlack) wrote, @ 2006-06-10 01:48:00 ...

This month FanMail client NOCTALUCA released their album "Towering the Sum" to a frenzy of anticipation and critical acclaim.
In a recent newsletter to their fans, Noctaluca introduced GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN and exlained how the artist inspired the album. The really cool thing about the newsletter is that it was almost entirely about something other than themselves. No cheesy self portraits or "here are our tour dates" or "thanks to the people who love us". The entire newsletter was focused on the artist that had influenced them.
Bravo! ...

Konsequent und virtuos. Technische Meisterschaft und auch die Konsequenz einer packenden sozialkritischen Thematik offenbaren sich in dieser Ausstellung: Gewalt, Schmerz, Verletzung werden dargestellt. Den Körper ebenso wie die Psyche betreffend. Helnwein dokumentiert hier in Linz einen künstlerischen Reifegrad, der eine weitere Steigerung kaum vorstellbar macht. Seine Eingriffe sind von einer schmerzhaften Unmittelbarkeit, deren emotionale Energie weit über die großen Bildformate hinaus den Raum und sein Publikum ergreift. (Irene Judmayer - Oberösterreichische Nachrichten) ...

ALL CONTENT © NICK KUSHNER 2006
EXCLUDING IMAGES BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN ...

正视内心的黑暗需要勇气
搜‘水晶玻璃之夜’的时候，路过Gottfried Helnwein的官方网站，随便溜了一下。Helnwein是维也纳出生的另类艺术家，1997年起定居爱尔兰。下面转一段关于他的文字：

看了他惊世骇俗的作品，对视觉和对心理的冲击令人战栗——其实我在看的大部分时间都是屏住呼吸的。如同William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) 的评价："You can't show anyone anything he hasn't seen already, on some level - any more than you can tell anyone anything he doesn't already know. 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." 有时候人们可能难以接受很多东西。据说《漂流欲室》在影展放映时有很多人因为承受不了中途退场，有的人甚至呕吐了。还有《不可逆转》，长达9分钟的强暴镜头我几乎是以一种倔强的坚持支撑下来的。（我看到一个网站上说这9分钟“为人津津乐道”，什么叫“津津乐道”？？）我不懂艺术和另类，但艺术的存在大概真的是为了提醒人们某些东西是存在的——那些黑暗冰冷的只是被我们有意回避了。如果我真的只是习惯生活在营造出来的美好世界里，算不算自欺欺人？ ...

Drei Topfilme über den Starkünstler Gottfried Helnwein - darunter eine brandneue, 2006 entstandene Dokumentation.
19.00 Uhr "Der Provokateur" von C. Teissig, 2006 (45 min.)
20.00 Uhr "Helnwein" von Peter Hajek, 1984 (45 min.)
21.00 Uhr "Neunter November Nacht", 2003 (25 min.) Dokumentation über Helnweins Aufsehen erregende Kölner Aktion zum 50. Jahrestag der "Reichskristallnacht" ...

Κοιτάζοντας το τελευταίο τευχος του spartandog θυμήθηκα τον Gottfried Helnwein. Eίναι γνωστός στο ευρύ κοινό για την αυτοπροσωπογραφία του, που το 1982 έγινε εξώφυλλο του blackout των scorpions. Σαν εικαστικός γενικότερα χαρακτηρίστηκε απο τους αερογράφους και τα ακρυλικα που έκανε τις δεκάετιες 70 και 80 που σοκάριζαν και προκαλούσαν με τα "φιλο-νοσοκομειακα" και βίαια θέματα του. ...

Gottfried Helnwein - ein künstlerischer Anarchist aus Prinzip. Seine Bilder erzählen von apokalyptischen Visionen. Schon seit Beginn seiner Karriere ist Helnwein umstritten. Claudia Teissig porträtiert den genialen Blickfänger. ...

专辑的封面及巡演的舞台设计，玛丽莲·曼森邀请了奥地利后印象派画家Gottfried Helnwein（http://www.helnwein.com），他曾成功地为东德前卫金属乐队“战车”（Rammstein）做了形象设计。“我感到很荣幸能和Helnwein进行合作，我欣赏他的态度与观念：用创作去探索终极的恐惧，仿佛明天永远不会来临，并毫无一丝歉意。恐惧与绝望往往促发出人类最强大的创作欲望。”一反传统的巡演方式，玛丽莲·曼森按歌舞剧的形式设计每一场演出，乐队正在由一支摇滚乐队转向一支戏院乐队（Theater Rock）。“我就是要把人们认为不可能的东西带入摇滚乐现场，比如说：燃烧的钢琴、儿童、一对联体的伴舞女郎。” ...

Katalog. Linz 2006. Beitr. von Stella Rollig, Thomas Edlinger u.a. 4to. 224 S. mit 203 meist farb., teils ganz- bzw. doppelseit. Abb., Chronologie, Ppbd. - Text in dt. & engl. Sprache.
Bestell-Nr: lgrde-1366901 | EUR 39.90 ...

Gottfried Helnwein 出生于维也纳。1969年到1973年在维也纳的the Academy of Fine Arts学习绘画。他吸收了日常生活中比如漫画、广告、电影的美学元素，在这段时间创作了部分超现实主义画作。而这些早期的画作很清楚的表明了他的艺术观，他所想要表达的东西。缠着绷带的孩子，幼稚儿童脸上的撕裂之后再次缝合的伤口。如同爬虫类一样冰冷而无机质毫不感觉痛楚的眼神。画者那种权威而细致的表现伤害的冷静让当时的大众无法接受。71年到73年， Helnwein的作品展览无一不受到抵制。维也纳的一家画廊展出他的画作，结果不到三天就被迫关闭。甚至维也纳附近一座城市的市长下令将 Helnwein的作品没收。当时他的反对者喊出的理由是这些作品是“the Nazis'' term for degenerate art”。因为他对待伤口、死亡、折磨与伤害是带着那样一种天真的热情态度来描写，所以人们忍受不了吗？这个世界有许多无法言说的东西。战争总是扯出人类最黑暗的那一面。而Helnwein就是那样微笑着用他的画笔来揭露出人性。是他的作品是纳粹的垃圾，还是人们始终无法正视内心深处涌动的黑暗冰冷 ...