cover: "Head of a Child 4"
inside: "Head of a Child 5" 2000, oil and acrylic on canvas,
and "Ninth of November Night", 1988, installation at the Museum Ludwig, cologne ...

`The Portrait Obscured,'' the current exhibit at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, where 19 artists have all but forgone the portrait entirely in their pursuit of it.
The exhibit's signature pieces are two paintings by the Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein.
A bit of perceptual sleight of hand, two seemingly blue-black canvases on close inspection reveal portraits of John Lennon and Bruce Lee.
Portraits obscured, to be sure, and perhaps a meditation on how unknowable are the famous by their famous faces. ...

...or how about odd nerdrum...or gottfried helnwein if you just wanna talk about paint handling these two are far superior...and perhaps being a child of a "ironic culture" has something to do with you liking the paintings...perhaps me being a child of a violent one has something to do with not liking them...
I understand the subjectivity in art but I was hoping we'd stop breeding new "quirku" warhols ...

The common or garden tie doesn't tend to throw up too many fashion conundrums for the casual wearer. The options are pretty simple; classic and understated or loud and hey, wacky!
But not anymore: thanks to London-based fashion terrorists, Cultural Ties, all that is about to change with a range of neckties, featuring specially commissioned work from over 80 contemporary artists. Now the sartorially discerning can choose from pink bunnies (Jeff Koons), naked ladies (Paola Gandolfi), amorphous freaks (Gottfried Helnwein) and satanic messages (David Shrigley) to mention a few.

"Ужас!" - воскликнешь ты, а по мне - так это потомки звезд
М.К. Щербаков
Кому-то Готтфрид Хельнвайн покажется просто ужасным, кому-то любопытным, кому-то отвратительным, кто-то просто офигеет, кому-то очень понравится, но факт заключается в том, что этот график/ художник/ дизайнер не оставит равнодушным никого.
Большинство людей, которым я всучивал в руки альбом Хельнвайна, реагировали остро негативно, мол, это не искусство, он психопат и маньяк недоделанный, это нельзя никому показывать и т.п. Вспомните Босха! Всеми уважаемый художник, классик. Его работы до сих пор используются в декорациях театров, на концертах различных групп, в том числе группами "Depeche Mode", "U2" и т.д. и т.п. А он (Босх) разве не ужас? Пожирание людей, пронзенные струнами арфы спины, отрывания конечностей, уроды и прочее сему подобное... Вот, блин, гуманист-христианин нашелся! Я тоже люблю живопись Босха, возможно это один из самых моих любимых художников, но все же... А Кукрыниксы с их красными носатыми мужиками, которые штыками протыкают черепные коробки Гитлеров? А Дюрер с отсеченными головами и лужами крови? А Караваджо с его бесконечными трупами? (Кстати, один из автопортретов Хельнвайна использовала группа "Scorpions" для оформления обложки своего альбома "Blackout".) ...

...

How can one recount the Holocaust? That is certainly one of the major questions confronting any writer who tries to write on this theme. How is one to transform the horrific and inconceivable reality into fiction? How can one create a feeling of aunthenticity in the reader? How to disturb his emotional world without resorting to sentimental manipulation and how to avoid banality? ...

Handelsblatt: Wie würden Sie Ihren persönlichen Stil beschreiben?
Helnwein: Was meine künstlerische Arbeit betrifft, ist mein Stil, keinen Stil zu haben. Genauer gesagt: keine stilistischen Grenzen zu haben. In der Kunst, aber auch im Leben, gibt es heute nicht mehr die Geborgenheit eines stilistischen Überbaus. ...

Eine Frau mit Stentorstimme. "Hier spricht Marlene Dietrich. Stellen Sie doch Ihren Antworter lauter. Ich muss Sie sprechen, dringend! Wo sind Sie denn?"
Herbst 1991. Anrufbeantworter sind noch nicht weit verbreitet, ihre Funktion wird mitunter verkannt. Die versteckte Diva hat jedenfalls keinen in ihrer Pariser Wohnungsfestung. Wer ihre Nummer zugespielt bekommt und anruft, hat sie gleich selbst am Apparat. Obwohl sie sich als die Haushälterin ausgibt und stereotyp auf französisch lügt: "Madame ist nicht da."
Ihre Zugehdame hat sie längst entlassen müssen, es ist nicht mehr genügend Geld da im Hause Dietrich. Marlene telefoniert, tippt ihre Briefe selber auf der Schreibmaschine und fragt den Maler Gottfried Helnwein: "Wissen Sie mir nicht ein Geschäftchen?" Der gehört, seitdem er das Plakat für ihren letzten Kinofilm "Marlene" von Maximilian Schell (1983) - mit bizarren Interviewszenen, in denen man sie reden, lachen und schimpfen hört, aber kein einziges Mal zu sehen bekommt -, geschaffen hat, zu ihrem geschrumpften Freundeskreis, den "Sacred Seven", den heiligen Sieben. ...

Im Empfangsraum hängt ein Bild des Malers Gottfried Helnwein.
"Ein Kind verschließt die Augen vor dieser Welt". Dabei ist es gerade der Blick aus Kinderaugen, der Ute Ohoven nicht zur Ruhe kommen lässt, sondern immer wieder neu motiviert. ...

"Sogar Marlenes Stimme klang einsam"
Am Ende ihres Lebens schloss sich Marlene Dietrich von der Welt aus. Zu den sieben Freunden, die sie in ihrer Pariser Wohnung besuchen durften, gehörten der Maler Gottfried Helnwein und seine Frau Renate. Sie erzählen von ihrer Freundschaft zu der Diva, die am 27. Dezember 100 Jahre alt geworden wäre. ...

Ireland got its first real glimpse into the mind of Gottfried Helnwein in August of this year when he headlined the increasingly high profile Kilkenny Arts Festival. Across the medieval city, familiar landmarks were draped in gigantic posters bearing the Helnwein trademark. Huge freckle-faced Kilkenny children - their eyes closed and vulnerable yet possessed of a curious wisdom - occupied the walls from St Canice's Cathedral to the courtyard of Kilkenny castle. Dominating the Castle entrance was a massive print entitled "Epiphany", depicting a voluptuous mother proudly displaying her naked young boy to a gathering of sharp-dressed officers. It is only when one registers the swastikas and iron crosses on the officers' uniforms that one looks again at this toddler and beholds the unmistakeable mug of Adolf Hitler Junior. This was a bold statement by Gottfried in which he was effectively drawing a comparison between the iconoclastic and suppressive nature of the Nazi system and the more disturbing tenets of Roman Catholicism. ...

Q:How can you explain the artistic cruelty of your cover art works? Why is there so much pain and suffering on them? Where is the border between art and cruelty?
.
A:We like to arise controversies and that is why already on the second album we decided to choose the photographs of Helnwein for our cover artwork. We really like his attitude towards art and the way he showed us. It turned out that a band picture can be something different, a real art, and not just another common, boring shot of a few people. ...

Übersetzung des englischen Textes von Mic Moroney: THE MURMUR OF THE INNOCENTS.
Katalog "Helnwein", one man show and Installation in the City o Kilkenny, The Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001 ...

A controversial "Nazi" image by artist Gottfried Helnwein was daubed with red paint last week as Kilkenny Arts Festival entered its final days. Another Helnwein print, of a local girl, was set on fire and extensively damaged.

Helnwein is famously confrontational, and his bold conflations of Nazi and Christian iconography, in Epiphany and other prominently displayed pictures, predictably generated some friction. Yet, in a way, one shouldn't rush to condemn condemnations of, or expressions or resignation about, Helnwein's work, no matter how superficial or uninformed they turn out to be. Because, let's face it, a large part of its effectiveness had to do with its calculated, barbed ambiguity.
The point of the images is that they put it up to you as a viewer. Given that, one potential line of criticism is that they are designed solely to be provocative, like Marcus Harvey's portrait of Myra Hindley. But the abiding strength of Helnwein's work is that provocation is a means rather than an end; it is - however uncomfortable - morally grounded, if not necessarily in a way that will please all observers...
His beautiful photographs of Kilkenny children are, collectively, a recognisable derivative of his work Selection, which implicitly placed the viewer in the position of someone marking children for extermination. Strong stuff.
If that seems irrelevant in an Irish context, one could always point to Northern Ireland and to the scandals that have shaken the complacent authority of church and state in recent years.
What is more innocent, more open, more charming than the face of a child? Except that we are more than ever uncomfortably aware that the act of looking is not at all innocent, and Helnwein's children, with their closed, downcast eyes, decline to meet our collective gaze. Why? Perhaps because they insist on remaining within the orbits of their imaginations.
There is also, however, a slight unease arising from the uniformity of the images and the awareness that the subjects are being directed. Helnwein has a knack for throwing responsibility for what we are looking at back onto us, the viewers. ...

...

A spokesman for the festival said they were "disappointed and saddened" that the images had been attacked. He said Mr Helnwein's work had provoked a strong reaction throughout the festival. "There have been a lot of positive comments but there has been negative reaction as well."
The images have been a major talking point since before the festival began. A former mayor of the city, Mr Paul Cuddihy, initially objected to a painting being hung on the City Hall for fear it might be misinterpreted as lending support to Nazism. After meeting Mr Helnwein at his studio in Co Tipperary, however, Mr Cuddihy said the artist's work was "astonishingly good".

Kilkenny Arts Festival said the artist had a long and acknowledged record of taking a firm stand against Nazism and fascism. ...

The major art works of Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, at Kilkenny Castle, Butler House and throughout the city are beautiful, prosaic, sinister, grotesque, unusual and ordinary and provoked a lot of discussion and disgust.

A controversial mural by Austrian artist, Gottfried Helnwein has been damaged at the Kilkenny Arts Festival.
Huge canvases of his work, depicting images of Nazi soldiers staring adoringly at modern Madonna and Child figures, were displayed on various buildings in Kilkenny during the festival.
One of the murals hanging at the front of Kilkenny castle had paint thrown at it sometime during the night.
Another picture by Mr Helnwein, featuring a young Kilkenny girl, was also partially damaged in another part of the town. ...