 Gottfried Helnwein, Untitled (detail), photograph, 1987 |
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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
Maturity is to recover the seriousness of a child at play. Nietzsche
When childhood dies, its
corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer
names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them,
they show us the state of our decay.
The genius of art finds sanctuary among children and madmen to survive.That is who we are. Marilyn Manson
Ich
werde nie die Empfindung vergessen, die ich hatte, als Gottfried
Helnweins Bild "Kindskopf" im
Russsischen Museum enthüllt wurde.
I'll never forget the sensation I had at the unveiling of Gottfried Helnwein's "Head of a Child" in the Russian Museum. And not just because this enormous canvas (six metres in height, four in breadth), well-known from reproductions, seemed to operate in a whole new way in the real, quasi-monumental space of the museum's exhibition-hall, - I realised that I was looking at the inner content of this innovative picture from a whole new point of view. Alexander Borovsky
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 imagination, and magic and miracles
are a natural part of life.
Communicating with adults, on the other hand, sometimes seems to
be so limited and incredibly complicated. And usually boring. Gottfried Helnwein
Genius is childhood
recovered at will.
O innocence!
innocence, innocence, innoc..., plague!
I needed to purge
myself of all the attention my parents had given me - I wasn't neglected
enough as a child.
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay. Brian W. Aldiss
The Voice of the child is in all my work. Critics used to say that I am the child in my plays. I don't think one has to be so literal, but for me it makes the work believable. I think it is necessary that we se the child and his point of view at all times. Robert Wilson
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 Helnwein’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. The Prague Post
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. Artweek
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
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
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. San Francisco Chronicle
I feel there is a strong bond between artists and children and all other sacred fools. Gottfried Helnwein
Gottfried Helnwein is a brave virtuoso of versatility. In his work,
he forces us to confront, via his visual wit, brio, and candor, the
human face of violence and angst. Flash Art
What Helnwein 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." Los Angeles Times
The most powerful images that deal with Nazism and Holocaust themes
are by Anselm Kiefer and Helnwein, although, Kiefer's work differs
considerably from Helnwein's in his concern with the effect of German
aggression on the national psyche and the complexities of German
cultural heritage. But Kiefer and Helnwein's work are both informed
by the personal experience of growing up in post-war German speaking
countries... Jewish Journal, Los Angeles
BLACK MIRROR. Eine Erzählung von Stephen King. Ein amerikanischer
Schüler, zwölf bis dreizehn Jahre alt. in der Lamgeweile
einer Kleinstadt fasziniert von Dokumenten über die deutschen
Konzentrationslager, wie seine Mitschüler von Superman, die
Formel seiner Faszination THEY JUST DID THOSE THINGS, erkennt, an
seiner täglichen Bushaltestelle, ein Gesicht, das er auf Fotos
gesehen hat, unter der schwarzen Mütze mit dem Totenkopf, über
der schwarzen Uniform der SS. Der Junge erpresst den unerkannten
Mörder zum Erzählen: HOW DID YOU DO THOSE THINGS? Der Mörder
erzählt um sein Leben. Aus der Neugierde wird der Drang zur
wirklichen Erfahrung: Die beiden gründen eine Mord GmbH und
säubern die Kleinstadt von Hunden, Tramps, und anderem "Unwerten
Leben"... Heiner Müller
A story by Stephen King. An American schoolboy, twelve or thirteen
years old, fascinated in his small-town boredom by documents on the
German concentration camps - the way his classmates are by Superman
- the formula of his fascination: THEY JUST DID THOSE THINGS...
Scale
is an important part of his strategy because, he wants to engage
with the widest possible public. To this end, transgression is also
central. The Irish Times
Gottfried Helnwein's paintings evoke complex layers of history and psychology. Working with extraordinary technical sophistication, Helnwein seamlessly fuses traditional craftsmanship and contemporary conceptual investigations. Gary Garrels
Helnwein's
work is perfectly executed proof of the mastery of all the available
means to outdo the reality in depiction. Peter Zawrel
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