Zur Einstimmung sah man zunächst einmal Halbwüchsige in HJ-Uniform mit Kopfverband und Mickey-Mouse-Ohren mechanisch durch die Volksbühne marschieren, von links nach rechts und dann wieder zurück. Dabei zogen sie auch stets an der Kunst vorbei, die in den Vorräumen zum Bestaunen an die Wände gehängt worden war. Auf der einen Seite präsentierte Marilyn Manson seine Aquarelle; lustige, kleine, bunte Bilder, die in der Regel Menschen und Tiere zeigten, denen es nicht ganz so gut ging. Manche lächelten irre, anderen fehlten entscheidende Körperteile. Auf der anderen Seite sah man die großformatigen Manson-Porträts des Fotorealisten Gottfried Helnwein. Darauf war Manson mal mit Zylinder, mal mit Mickey-Mouse-Ohren zu sehen. Vor den Bildern hatte sich ein Kamerateam des Musiksenders MTV aufgebaut und interviewte gerade die Bundestagsvizepräsidentin Antje Vollmer. Frage an Frau Vollmer: "Spüren Sie eine Seelenverwandtschaft?" ...

Im Foyer spricht er über seine eigenen Aquarelle und zeigt die morbide faszinierenden Cover-Porträts, die der österreichische Künstler Gottfried Helnwein von ihm gemacht hat. Auf den Fotos trägt der Musiker Micky-Maus-Ohren und schafft es, sogar damit düster auszusehen. Dazu passt eine Performance, bei der Kinder in faschistisch wirkender Kluft mit Maus-Ohren und verbundenen Gesichtern durch das Theater marschieren. Manson sucht in seiner Kunst den Tanz auf dem Vulkan. ...

The Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein is well aware of the discomfort the public feels when confronted with images of children not represented as innocents but to whom a powerful sexual identity (and an awareness) is designated. In his work, and especially his paper drawings, he has created some of the most powerful and disturbing representations of abused childhood in history of art. We are not talking about the form of abuse commonly described in the penal code. By altering or removing the inbred pulsation that spurs us to stubbornly refuse or deny what we do not recognise, the manipulations and interferences (The Intrusion) adults perform on the social body of childhood are denounced. ...

Doch steht er bei weitem nicht allein in diesem Theater der Grausamkeit made in Austria. Seine Erbarmungslosigkeit gehört in eine lange Tradition künstlerischer Darstellung der österreichischen «Verlarvtheit». So nennt es der Maler und Aktionskünstler Gottfried Helnwein, so zeichnet es der Comic- König Manfred Deix, so monologisiert es Helmut Qualtinger alias Herr Karl, so textet es die Schriftstellerin Elfriede Jelinek - alle eingebettet als Militärberichterstatter vor Ort in diesem blutigen Aggressionskrieg gegen Verdumpfung, Verdummung und moralische Verderbnis. Auf dem Kommandoposten stehen noch immer Karl Kraus und Thomas Bernhard, hoch dekorierte Generäle an einer Heimatfront, um die mit Gift und Gas gekämpft wird. Sprachgift und Kunstgas gegen Gift und Gas der Geschichte. Schützengräben gegen jede Form von «Anschluss», in dem sich die Nazifratze immer von neuem ungehemmt entlarven will.
Pickel-Naturalismus. ...

If you are already familiar with Gottfried Helnwein then you proably knew more than I do about art, and I apologize on behalf of the commercially saturated masses.
Helnwein is a ridiculously talented artist. That is basically all you need to know. Anything you could imagine art doing for you, or to you, any feeling it might instill in you or emotion it might remove from you, he captures, then cripples, reformats, and pastes into the cleft pallet of a 20-foot-tall gray-scale rendition of a deformed fetus soaking in formaldehyde.
The essence of realism and ability that every art major ever clamored to grasp, he manages to expel onto canvas with apparent ease. He produces paintings, and photographs that you can't help but wish you could recreate with the same vision, depth, and intrigue. His art is without gimmick and his persona is without persona.
Helnwein is simply someone who enjoys creating, and has been doing a pretty damn good job at it for 35 years. ...

Gottfried Helnwein's extensive 1997 retrospective at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg gave visitors an overview of his work going back to his street actions in Vienna in the 1970s, his grimacing iconic self-portraits that suggest self-mutilation, and on to his menacing canvases depicting the evils of the Third Reich.
He has worked as a painter. draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor and performance artist. His work is consistently concerned with psychological anxiety.
In his new series of paintings, done in somber monochrome blues, he continues to work with singulae sense of suspense and mystery. ...

 
Although cartoons and caricatures have played an important role in Western culture since the Middle Ages, the development of the comic strip and comic books are a unique American phenomenon and has contributed significantly to American visual culture.
...Gottfried Helnwein's "American Prayer," which is a large hyper-realistic painting of a boy kneeling in bedtime prayer to a large and looming Donald Duck.
About Helnwein's piece: Clark says, "In many ways, this is the signature piece for this whole show, because it shows how cartoon imagery has entered our culture, our world, our daily life." ...

This was the moment when I sensed for the first time," Helnwein has since written, "[that] you can change something with aesthetics, you can get things moving in a very subtle way, you can get even the powerful and strong to slide and totter, anything actually if you know the weak points and tap at them ever so gently by aesthetic means." For the following three-and-a-half decades he has relentlessly pursued that goal, masterfully incorporating everything from painting to performance to photography, regularly causing art world outcry and public fury. Yet as his knockout exhibition at Modernism last October made clear, his art is successful less for its evident tendency to provoke than for its extraordinary ability to perplex. ...

When Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein opened a show of his paintings recently, celebrities crowded his downtown studio.
Leonardo DiCaprio rubbed Elbows with Marilyn Manson. Beck chatted with Kevin Smith. Mena Suvari stopped for a photo op, and Sean Penn lent his cool.
For a recent transplant, Helnwein attracted much Hollywood. ...

“This is a very serious and somewhat disturbing exhibition,” said Mayor Meralee Goldman, who is supportive of the exhibit and was first approached by the Austrian artist.
“There is an important component of education to go along with this exhibit,” Human Relations Director Mary O’Gorman said. “This is a Holocaust Memorial, and the intent at times is to overwhelm.”
The exhibit is described as “an art event to focus the conscience of the viewer and, through media exposure, the conscience of the widest possible public” by the artist’s draft proposal. “An art installation a city block long...will rise into public view to cry out against not only one of history’s most tragic and horrific episodes of prejudice, but also against the current resurgence of the endangerment of children through intolerance around the world.” ...