Some might think that Los Angeles - its unrelenting sun, its one-step-away-from-reality perch -- is an incongruous place for someone like Helnwein. What he creates, regardless the medium - watercolor, oil, photography, performance art, sculpture - is a thorny psychological excursion into our sublimated self, our obscured corners and dark humors. His explorations into war crimes, Catholicism, disfigurement and the Holocaust are both unflinching and surgical. His work is in museum collections around the world, including those of LACMA and the Smithsonian, and critics have labeled it grotesque, fearless, disturbing and "veer[ing] dangerously close to offensive." People are surprised, he says, when they discern that he doesn't "seem insane." ...

Wie sah es in Arno Brekers Atelier aus?
Helnwein: Überall standen Gips-Plastiken von Negern und Juden herum, die er nach dem Krieg hergestellt hatte. Eine heroisierende überlebensgroße Büste stellte einen beleibten Schwarzen in Uniform und vielen Orden dar. Ich fragte, wer das sei. „Das war der frühere Präsident der Elfenbeinküste“, antwortete er. „Der tauchte in den sechziger Jahren bei mir auf, legte seinen Arm um meine Schultern und sagte: ‚Breker, kommen Sie zu mir an die Elfenbeinküste. Ich werde Ihr zweiter Hitler sein". Breker sollte eine neue Hauptstadt entwerfen, was dieser auch sofort tat. Er zeigte mir das Gipsmodell dieses Utopia in dessen Mitte sich ein gigantischer Platz befand mit der riesigen Skulptur eines Afrikaners - mit zerrissenem Hemd und gesprengten Fesseln, der aufgewühlte Blick und die geballte Faust gen Himmel gerichtet. Auf meine Frage, was aus dem Projekt geworden sei, antwortete Breker mit leiser, resignierender Stimme "Der Präsident ist leider kurze Zeit darauf gestürzt worden"
Wie reagierte Breker, als Sie ihn mit Ihrem Beyus-Porträt in der Hand fotografierten?
Helnwein: Er hielt das Bild hoch und murmelte: „Das hätte sich der Beuys aber nicht träumen lassen.“ ...

An alternative title to “Angels Sleeping” for this exhibition could be “All Hail to the Wounded Child,” as many of the works center on irreparably wounded children (both externally and internally) as the innocent victims of war. The children in Helnwien’s works may also represent the lost or destroyed child in all of us, not only as victims of war, but as victims of modern society, with all its mindless violence and perverse attraction to aggressive mobs and disturbances. If there were a soundtrack to this exhibition, it would be a long, endless scream.
Tony Ozuna, The Prague Post, 02. July 2008 ...

Helnwein v Rudolfinu Výstava Angels Sleeping představuje díla rakouského umělce Gottfrieda Helnweina, jehož tvorba se stala fenoménem hyperrealistické malby. Jeho fotograficky přesné malby čerpají z popokultury i historie, jeho velkým tématem je postavení dítěte v krajní situaci. Expozice je rozdělena do pěti oddílů, které představují hlavní témata Helnweinova práce s důrazem na malířskou tvorbu posledních let. První skupinu tvoří portréty obvázané autorovy tváře, ve druhé najdeme odkazy na nacistickou minulost Rakouska, ve třetíma a čtvrtém je ústředním tématem dítě. V poslední části najdeme fotografie inspirované popkulturou. Soubor vystavených děl je zapůjčen z autorova majetku, ale také z řady veřejných a soukromých sbírek z Evropy a USA. ...

Ve dvaceti namaloval Gottfried Helnwein vlastní krví obraz "führera“. Vedení grafické školy ve Vídni, kde studoval, obraz zabavilo a autora vyloučilo. Nyní je někdejšímu studentu-provokatérovi šedesát, při osobním setkání působí vyrovnaně a vyhlíží jako rocker a šaman v jedné osobě. Jeho hyperrealistické obrazy připomínají temnou nacistickou minulost, obrazy nevinných dětí ztělesňujících krásu a čistotu rané duše. Výstavu nazvanou Angels Sleeping hostí do konce srpna pražská Galerie Rudolfinum. ...

An alternative title to “Angels Sleeping” for this exhibition could be “All Hail to the Wounded Child,” as many of the works center on irreparably wounded children (both externally and internally) as the innocent victims of war. The children in Helnwien’s works may also represent the lost or destroyed child in all of us, not only as victims of war, but as victims of modern society, with all its mindless violence and perverse attraction to aggressive mobs and disturbances.
If there were a soundtrack to this exhibition, it would be a long, endless scream. ...

What do Marilyn Manson, Mickey Mouse, violence against children and Nazism have in common? There may be a few ways to answer that question, but Gottfried Helnwein’s exhibition, Angels Sleeping, brings these topics together most powerfully, and might expose a few feelings of anguish you never knew you had.
If you have yet to experience the hyper-realistic paintings of Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, head to the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague at once. The art on offer spans his work from the 1970s up to the present day, split into five key sections that explore his most common themes of psychological and sociological suffering, with paintings so realistic you’ll question your own eyes. ...

But what does the hyper-realism of Austrian-born, Irish-based artist Gottfried Helnwein say to us and about us in the context of "Body Anxious"? His work is what puts this show on the map of bodily pain and anxiety. He has painted a hyper-realistic, oversized portrait of a little girl in a pink-and-white undershirt, her head and eyes swathed in gauze so recently wrapped that it glistens with blood. It is from Helnwein's "Los Caprichos" series, named after the famous Goya series. Art historians say Goya's "Caprichos" mark the beginning of the modern world of art because they were the first to look at, rather than avoid or symbolize, pain, fantasy, cruelty, disloyalty and any other number of grievous human traits. ...

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GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN "A comunicação de Helnwein não se restringe a normas de aceitação nem assume compromissos, seguindo de uma forma particularmente identificável uma linguagem onde abunda a perda de inocência, questões relacionadas com a exploração da imagem pela publicidade e a iconografia do universo infantil. ...