GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN - THE CHILD
"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

Gottfried Helnwein, "Red Mouth" (detail), 1978
Watercolor on Cardboard, 98 x 71cm.

QUOTES:

"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot, which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie."

Jean Cocteau

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

Picasso

"I wanted to discuss the suffering of humanity in general, but perhaps we'd better confine ourselves to the sufferings of children."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazov

"The genius of art finds sanctuary among children and madmen to survive. That is who we are."

Marilyn Manson
about his collaboration with Helnwein

"I always feel so much more comfortable communicating with children than with grown-ups. Everything is far more simple and makes so much more sense – to me at least. In the world of a child anything is possible, there are no limits for the imagination, and magic and miracles are a natural part of it – art and life is one.
Communicating with adults, on the other hand, sometimes seems to be so limited and incredibly complicated and above all boring. Unfortunately it’s the grown-ups that rule the world and make the laws and all kids have to go through their training-program called education. Once they come out on the other side they are usually broken, the magic is gone and then they can be citizens, soldiers, clerks, politicians, prostitutes or other interesting things like that.
Funny enough it doesn’t always work. Some kids seem to be relatively immune to the program, and one day I realized: that’s what almost all artist have in common – to a certain degree they all managed to continue being a child.
I feel there is a strong bond between artists and children and all other sacred fools."

Gottfried Helnwein
in an interview with Yuichi Konno for Yaso, Japan

" Helnwein is the next generation’s final ally, a skilled provocateur forcing us to confront the legacy we have bequeathed upon our children. Helnwein is our chronicler, our conscience, the antidote to our failing memories. He refuses to let us forget."

Colin Berry,
art-critic, writer

"In addition to sketches of ballet-dancing hares, booted cats, and strangled and stuffed ducks, there are studies or imaginative drawings of the heads of ill-treated children, whose mouths are grotesquely disfigured by braces and pink coloured scars. The grimaces on these mocking distorted faces signalize disobedience, opposition and turmoil, as well as a kind of childlike autonomy in the depraved world of adults. The grin found on the faces of ill-treated children, a grotesque picture puzzle which includes both the martyrdom and subversion of mankind is entirely Helnwein’s invention. It is manifested in the metamorphic images of injured bodies.
It is an obsessive pattern which is repeated in Helnwein’s pictoral representation of the world and in his staged artistic actions, serving as a metaphor for the invulnerability and invincibility deeply seated in man..."

Peter Gorsen

“Neben Skizzen von Ballet tanzenden Hasen und gestiefelten Katzen, strangulierten und gestopften Enten finden sich Studien oder eher Wunschzeichnungen zu malträtierten Kinderköpfen, deren Münder durch Spangen und rosige Narben grauenhaft entstellt sind, aber gleichzeitig durch ihre höhnischen, Fratzen schneidenden Grimassen Ungehorsam, Widerstand, Aufruhr, so etwas wie kindliche Autonomie in der depravierten Erwachsenenwelt signalisieren. Das Feixen des malträtierten Kindes, ein groteskes Vexierbild, in das Märtyrertum und Subversion der Menschenkreatur gleichermaßen eingeflossen sind, ist ganz allein Helnweins Erfindung. Sie offenbart sich in den vielen Metamorphosen des Phantasmas vom versehrten Körper als obsessives Grundmuster seiner Bildwelt und aktionistischen Darstellungen, als Metapher einer im Innersten des Menschen vorhandenen Unverletzlichkeit und Unbesiegbarkeit...”

Peter Gorsen
Excerpt from an essay for the Helnwein-exhibition at the Albertina Museum, Vienna, 1985,
“GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN, DER KÜNSTLER ALS AGRESSOR UND VERMALEDEITER MORALIST”

"Das Bild des Menschen in der Leidensnot, des unschuldig Verfolgten und Gequälten, das aus der Kunstgeschichte in zahllosen Märtyererszenen bekannt ist, entsteht immer wieder neu. In den Bildern von Gottfried Helnwein ist Betroffenheit über Schmerz und Ausweglosigkeit in der Situation des Kindes dargestellt. Das Kind ist die Gestalt des Unterlegenen, Abhängigen, Ausgelieferten und Ausgenützten. Unter dem Druck einer auf Anpassung drängenden Erwachsenenwelt werden ihm tiefe Verletzungen eingeprägt, entstellende Traumata.
Die Bandagen bei Helnwein oder schon zuvor bei den Wiener Aktionisten (Schwarzkoglers Bandagenaktionen) verweisen sowohl auf die Entstellung des Körpers wie auf das Verborgene dieser Verletzungen. Sie üben auf dem Hintergrund einer Tabuisierung von Verwundung, Behindertenexistenz und Tod eine starke Wirkung aus und setzen heftige Reaktionen frei."

Herbert Muck
Philosoph und Theologe, Kunstwerke und religiöse Vorstellungen des 20. Jahrhunderts

"Adults bring a trunkful of contradictory cultural baggage to any representations of children. That's what makes the work of Helnwein so powerful. In his show, "The Child," at the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, deformed infants and bandaged children stir feelings of pity, defiance and uneasiness about exploitation. There's an ambiguously disturbing painting of a girl aiming a gun into an open refrigerator and another of a bare-breasted mother and child surrounded by Aryan soldiers.
But the most haunting images may be the ones of children who seem strangely oblivious to the adult gaze. Some of Helnwein's children peer right past the onlooker. Others sleep, dreaming of anything but us behind their silky eyelids. And some, like the enormous, half- shadowed "Head of a Child" see straight through us with cloudless, infinite blue eyes."

Steven Winn
San Francisco Chronicle, Arts and Culture Critic

ARTICLE REFERENCES
Texts and essays that refer to the child-aspect in Helnwein’s work

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN: THE CHILD
by Harry S.Parker III, Director of Museums
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

THE CHILD
Works by Gottfried Helnwein
by Robert Flynn Johnson
Curator in Charge, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Palace of the Legion of Honor

CHILDHOOD ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE. IN THE ARTS, IT'S DARK AND COMPLEX
by Steven Winn
San Francisco Chronicle
Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
November 17, 2004

DARK AND DETACHED, THE ART OF GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN DEMANDS A RESPONSE.
by Kenneth Baker, Art Critic
San Francisco Chronicle

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN'S - THE CHILD INNOCENCE LOST
by Nirmala Nataraj
sf-station, San Francisco

INNOCENCE LOST
by Anita Amirrezvani
The Mercury News

THE DARKER SIDE OF PLAYLAND, CHILDHOOD IMAGERY FROM THE LOGAN COLLECTION
by Heather Whitmore Jain
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Curatorial Associate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

"THE DARKER SIDE OF PLAYLAND: CHILDHOOD IMAGERY FROM THE LOGAN COLLECTION" AT SFMOMA
by Alicia Miller
Artweek

THE HELNWEIN PASSION
by Alexander Borovsky
Curator for Contemporary Art at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Helnwein Monograph
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

THE LUDWIG MUSEUM IN THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM
The Ludwig Donation
by Evgenija Petrova
Chief curator, State Russian Museum St Petersburg
The State Russian Museum St. Petersburg
Palace Edition

EIN MÄDCHENKOPF FÜR SANKT PETERSBURG
by Lothar Deeg
Kölner Stadt Anzeiger

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN - BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN
by Peter Pachnike und Gisela Vetter-Liebenow
Ludwig Museum Schloss Oberhausen und Wilhelm Busch Museum Hannover
March, 01, 2005

CONUNDRUMS
by Jo-Ann Lewis
The Washington Post

HELNWEIN, ONE MAN SHOW, ROBERT SANDELSON GALLERY, LONDON
by Julia Weiner
Jewish Chronicle, London

HELNWEIN
by Joanna Hayman-Bolt
ART newsroom.com

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN
by Claire O'Donoghue
Curator
Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001, Ireland

THE MURMUR OF THE INNOCENTS
by Mic Moroney
Helnwein catalogue for the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001

THIS YEAR'S KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL HELPED TAKE CHALLENGING WORK OUT OF THE GALLERY AND ONTO THE STREETS
by Aiden Dunne
The Irish Times

AGAINST HARMLESSNESS IN ART
by Peter Zawrel
Director of the Museum of Lower Austria
Catalogue, Installation Apokalypse, Dominican Church, Krems

DAS VERSPRECHEN DER FOTOGRAFIE
by Klaus Honnef
Curator for Photography and New Media, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
Prestel, München, New York

"KINDSKOPF", HELNWEIN'S PLEA FOR A DIFFERENT CHILDHOOD
by Peter Zawrel
Chief curator, Museum of lower Austria
exhibition catalogue
Museum of lower Austria

AUF DEM COVER IST ZUM ERSTEN MAL NICHT MARIUS SELBST, SONDERN DAS PORTRÄT EINES KINDES ZU SEHEN.
by Susanne Breuel und Holger Ponik
Interview mit Marius Müller Westernhagen
NDR2

KINDER AUS PAPIER
4. Internationalen Biennale der Papierkunst im Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren
Der Spiegel
Spectrum

FÜR KINDER
by Katja Behrens
Charity

ENDZEITSTIMMUNG - DÜSTERE BILDER IN GOLDENER ZEIT
by Gregory Fuller
DuMont, Buchverlag, Köln

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN - L'HORRIBLE ET LE SUBLIME
by Andreas Mäckler
Benedikt Taschen Verlag

THOUGHTS
by Simon Wiesenthal
Museum Ludwig Cologne
Gottfried Helnwein, Installation Ninth November Night, Catalogue

ÄFFLINGE UND TSCHANDALEN
by Roland Mischke
Frankfurter Allgemeine

NINTH NOVEMBER NIGHT
by Reinhold Mißelbeck
Curator for Photography and new media, Museum Ludwig cologne
Gottfried Helnwein, Ninth November Night, Catalogue

CITY TO CONSIDER "OVERWHELMING" ART
by Imee Gacad
Staff Writer
The Beverly Hills Courier

DAS KIND IM FOCUS
by Johannes Rother
Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz
Zur Ausstellung, Teil I

INTOLERANZ UND GEWALT
by Johannes Rother
Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz
Zur Ausstellung, Teil II

L'INFANZIA A PEZZI
Shattered childhood, Gottfried Helnwein
by Massimiliano Geraci
Italy

FOTOGRAFIE DES 20. JAHRHUNDERTS
by Reinhold Mißelbeck
Kurator für Fotografie und Neue Medien, Museum Ludwig, Köln
Museum Ludwig, Köln, TASCHEN

EIN AUFSCHREI GEGEN DIE SCHMERZEN DER WELT
Die Kunst von Gottfried Helnwein - Erfolg und Kritik
by Erika Brenken
Deutsches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt

MAGIE DES ZÖLLNERS
by Frido Hütter
Kleine Zeitung Graz

BILDER EINER SCHRECKLICHEN GEWISSHEIT
by Marga Swoboda
Kronenzeitung
Wien

THE SAN FRANCISCO BEAT
by Penelope Rowlands
ART NEWS

HAMLET, HEINER, HOF, HELNWEIN
by Malve Gradinger
Münchener Merkur,
Kultur

WUNDERKINDER?
Künstler - und ihre Kinderzeichnungen
1.Wiener Kindergalerie
Gottfried Helnwein
1.Wiener Kindergalerie

DER SCHOCK DER AUS DEM ALLTAG REISST
Galerie Spectrum: Helnwein-Aktion und neue Bilder
by Erwin Melchart
Kronenzeitung
Kultur

OGOTTOGOTT
by Gerd Winkler
Pardon

FALK ZWINGT KUNST RAUS
Helnwein-Ausstellung abgebrochen
Profil
Wien

THE RAT LAUGHS
by Nava Semel
www.ybook.co.il
Israel
http://www.jewishculture.org/writers/about/bios/semel.html

CHILDREN, WHO HAVE BEEN A POPULAR SUBJECT DURING THE 20TH CENTURY - FROM
CHAGALL TO HELNWEIN...
by L. Nevolainen
art critic
Luke & A Gallery of Russian Modern Art, London

HOLOCAUST, THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES
by Harriet Cunningham
The Sydney Morning Herald
SYDNEY FESTIVAL

THE STRANGE CASE OF MADEMOISELLE P.
by Brian O' Doherty
arcadia

2006
Verlag Christian Brandstätter
Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz
FACE IT - THE NEW HELNWEIN BOOK

Gottfried Helnwein's latest exhibition, "Face It", is the artist's first show in his native Austria since 1985. A retrospective of 40 works from the 1970s to the present, it is more shocking than the Royal Academy's infamous "Sensation" of 1997. Helnwein aims to disturb not with, say, an elephant-dung Madonna, as Chris Ofili did then, but with a far more controversial Virgin. Of all his paintings, the most disturbing is Epiphany (1996), for which he dips into our collective memory of Christianity's most famous birth. This Austrian Catholic Nativity scene has no magi bearing gifts. Madonna and child are encircled by five respectful Waffen SS officers palpably in awe of the idealised, kitsch-blonde Virgin. The Christ toddler, who stands on Mary's lap, stares defiantly out of the canvas. Helnwein's baby Jesus is Adolf Hitler.

Julia Pascal, New Statesman, UK, "Nazi Dreaming", April 10, 2006

Face it - Gottfried Helnwein
225 Seiten
Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Wien, 2006
Deutsch, Englisch
ISBN-10: 3902510390
ISBN-13: 978-3902510396

Amazon.de: Face it - Gottfried Helnwein, Christian Brandstätter Verlag
Preis: EUR 39,90 Kostenlose Lieferung.

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