Gottfried Helnwein: Kristallnacht | ARTIST | Bibliography

catalogue
text by Chikako Imai
text by Evgenija Nicolaevna Petrova
Chief Curator, State Russian Museum St Petersburg
Alexander Borovsky, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art,State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Günter Zehnder,Chief Curator, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
text by Andreas Mäckler. ...

one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art, Strasbourg
“Helnwein – der Untermensch” (Self-Portraits 1970–1987),
Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1988,
text by Peter Gorsen and Heiner Müller. ...

exhibition-catalogue
Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz
Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren
Galerie Würthle, Wien, ...

Helnwein's painting "Dresden" is part of the Ludwig collection donated to the Chinese Museum for the Arts in Beijing. ...

Gottfried Helnwein's Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) is a strange takeoff on a traditional New Testament theme in art. The work depicts a Madonnalike mother displaying her baby to attentive Nazi officers, Painted in hyperrealist grisaille with chiaroscuro effects, the work resembles an old documentary photograph made huge. The eerie, sinister overtones are unmistakable. Who is this mother? What do these officers want with her and her child? What kind of official paper might the officer on the left hold in his hand and what might be its result? Helnwein, characteristically, presents us with an ambiguous, haunting image and leaves us to wonder about its meaning...
With its huge size, hyperrealist style, and disturbing content, this unsettling work bestows a psychological anxiety accompanied by a strong magnetic pull. Confronting it, we tend to stare-entranced by both its beauty and its seductive, malevolent overtones... ...

Die Ausstellung präsentiert vierzig ausgewählte Statements großer Photographen des 20.Jahrhunderts:
von Cartier-Bresson, Lebeck, Chargesheimer bis zu Klauke und Helnwein wird jeweils eine bedeutende künstlerische Position gezeigt.
Die Ausstellung konzentriert sich nicht auf das Einzelbild, sondern komponiert ganze Werkgruppen zu großformatigen Tableaus und unterstreicht so den "journalistischen Aspekt" in der Photographie dieses Jahrhunderts.
Einen Abschluß findet dieser Jahrhundertrückblick in drei künstlerischen Positionen, die in sehr persönlicher Weise Stellung zur gesellschaftlichen Situation beziehen:
Jürgen Klaukes "Self Performance" (1972/73), Philip Pococks Berliner Szenen (1982)
sowie Gottfried Helnweins "Poems" (1998). ...

"Child's Head", 1991, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 650x403.5
Pg. 278
The early stages of this monumental head can be seen in Helnwein's widely varied portrayals from the seventies of suffering children, but above all in the Cologne installation of anonymous children's portraits "9th November Night" from 1988.
The human face, in particular the child's face, is of great fascination for Helnwein and consequently accounts for one of his central pictorial subjects. The monumental face of a little girl which is introduced here is, as it were, representative of all children. In our adult society oriented towards profit and success, children can almost be described as a fringe group, their interests indeed being observed in a comparatively modest fashion. Against this background, this monumentalizing of the face in connection with the hyperrealistic style of painting is to be understood as an oppressive irritation of our customary experience of perception.
Originally the child's head was shown in a Minorite church in Krems, Stein; in fact it was placed at the focal point of a huge early Gothic room which lent the picture a positively sacral tone. ...

TOKYO

Interview with Gottfried Helnwein
Interviewer: ITO Toshiharu
Translation: ENDO Tohru
ゴットフリート・ヘルンヴァインインタビュー
インタヴュアー：伊藤俊治
遠藤徹　訳 ...

Das Gewaltthema und das Thema "der als Opfer" setzten sich von Beckmanns früher Arbeit von 1907 bis zum heutigen Tag fort. Bei Bruce Naumann, Marcel Odenbach, Jeff Wall und Gottfried Helnwein wandeln sich zwar die künstlerischen Mittel radikal, nicht aber das Thema selbst.
Helnweins faszinierendes Oeuvre umfaßt absolute Gegensätze. Helnwein ist ein Künstler der kompromißlosen Aussagen: Das Triviale, etwa der Disneykultur, wechselt ab mit Untergangsvisionen der Seele, die Göttlichkeit des Kindes kontrastiert mit Horrorbildern von Kinderschändung. Sein Grundthema aber bleibt die Gewalt, das physische und seelische Leid, das ein Mensch dem anderen zufügt. Der Künstler variiert dieses Thema innerhalb zweier Komplexe, die sich über viele Jahre hin durch sein Werk ziehen. ...

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	01. November 1996 - 06. April 1996 Museum of Fine Art, Otaru, Japan HELNWEIN one-man show catalogue text by Chikako Imai text by Evgenija Nicolaevna Petrova Chief Curator, State Russian Museum St Petersburg Alexander Borovsky, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art,State Russian Museum, St Petersburg Günter Zehnder,Chief Curator, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn text by Andreas Mäckler. ...


	03. June 1988 Edition Braus Heidelberg Peter Gorsen DER UNTERMENSCH Self-portraits from 1970 - 1987 one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art, Strasbourg “Helnwein – der Untermensch” (Self-Portraits 1970–1987), Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1988, text by Peter Gorsen and Heiner Müller. ...


	18. October 1986 - 03. May 1987 Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz - Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren text by Dorothea Eimert, Hans Dichand and Kurt Eitelbach. Kurt Eitelbach Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN one-man show exhibition-catalogue Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren Galerie Würthle, Wien, ...


	1996 The National Chinese Museum for the Arts Beijing Museum Ludwig LUDWIG MUSEUM FÜR INTERNATIONALE KUNST, CHINESISCHES KUNSTMUSEUM, BEIJING Exhibition and catalogue of the art works donated by the Collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig to China Helnwein's painting "Dresden" is part of the Ludwig collection donated to the Chinese Museum for the Arts in Beijing. ... Collector Ludwig donates Helnwein Artworks to the Museum for Fine Art in Beijing, 1996


	07. October 2006 - 15. July 2007 The Denver Art Museum Kent and Vicki Logan donated over 200 artworks to the Denver Art Museum's Modern and Cpontemporary Art department. Exhibition catalogue RADAR The Logan Collection Gottfried Helnwein's Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) is a strange takeoff on a traditional New Testament theme in art. The work depicts a Madonnalike mother displaying her baby to attentive Nazi officers, Painted in hyperrealist grisaille with chiaroscuro effects, the work resembles an old documentary photograph made huge. The eerie, sinister overtones are unmistakable. Who is this mother? What do these officers want with her and her child? What kind of official paper might the officer on the left hold in his hand and what might be its result? Helnwein, characteristically, presents us with an ambiguous, haunting image and leaves us to wonder about its meaning... With its huge size, hyperrealist style, and disturbing content, this unsettling work bestows a psychological anxiety accompanied by a strong magnetic pull. Confronting it, we tend to stare-entranced by both its beauty and its seductive, malevolent overtones... ...


	27. November 1999 - 19. March 2000 Museum Ludwig, Cologne Catalogue, Salon Verlag The Gruber Collection, Cologne AUGENBLICK UND ENDLICHKEIT Das von der Photographie geprägte Jahrhundert Die Ausstellung präsentiert vierzig ausgewählte Statements großer Photographen des 20.Jahrhunderts: von Cartier-Bresson, Lebeck, Chargesheimer bis zu Klauke und Helnwein wird jeweils eine bedeutende künstlerische Position gezeigt. Die Ausstellung konzentriert sich nicht auf das Einzelbild, sondern komponiert ganze Werkgruppen zu großformatigen Tableaus und unterstreicht so den "journalistischen Aspekt" in der Photographie dieses Jahrhunderts. Einen Abschluß findet dieser Jahrhundertrückblick in drei künstlerischen Positionen, die in sehr persönlicher Weise Stellung zur gesellschaftlichen Situation beziehen: Jürgen Klaukes "Self Performance" (1972/73), Philip Pococks Berliner Szenen (1982) sowie Gottfried Helnweins "Poems" (1998). ...


	1998 Evgenija Petrova Chief curator, State Russian Museum St Petersburg The State Russian Museum St. Petersburg Palace Edition THE LUDWIG MUSEUM IN THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM The Ludwig Donation "Child's Head", 1991, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 650x403.5 Pg. 278 The early stages of this monumental head can be seen in Helnwein's widely varied portrayals from the seventies of suffering children, but above all in the Cologne installation of anonymous children's portraits "9th November Night" from 1988. The human face, in particular the child's face, is of great fascination for Helnwein and consequently accounts for one of his central pictorial subjects. The monumental face of a little girl which is introduced here is, as it were, representative of all children. In our adult society oriented towards profit and success, children can almost be described as a fringe group, their interests indeed being observed in a comparatively modest fashion. Against this background, this monumentalizing of the face in connection with the hyperrealistic style of painting is to be understood as an oppressive irritation of our customary experience of perception. Originally the child's head was shown in a Minorite church in Krems, Stein; in fact it was placed at the focal point of a huge early Gothic room which lent the picture a positively sacral tone. ...


	1996 Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Köln Marc Scheps and Reinhold Mißelbeck Museum Ludwig, Köln FOTOGRAFIE DES 20. JAHRHUNDERTS Photography of the 20th Century ...


	1996 Inter Communication,Japan No.20 Spring 1997 INTERVIEW WITH GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN by Toshiharu Ito TOKYO Interview with Gottfried Helnwein Interviewer: ITO Toshiharu Translation: ENDO Tohru ゴットフリート・ヘルンヴァインインタビューインタヴュアー：伊藤俊治遠藤徹　訳 ...


	01. September 1994 DuMont, Buchverlag, Köln Gregory Fuller ENDZEITSTIMMUNG - DÜSTERE BILDER IN GOLDENER ZEIT Das Gewaltthema und das Thema "der als Opfer" setzten sich von Beckmanns früher Arbeit von 1907 bis zum heutigen Tag fort. Bei Bruce Naumann, Marcel Odenbach, Jeff Wall und Gottfried Helnwein wandeln sich zwar die künstlerischen Mittel radikal, nicht aber das Thema selbst. Helnweins faszinierendes Oeuvre umfaßt absolute Gegensätze. Helnwein ist ein Künstler der kompromißlosen Aussagen: Das Triviale, etwa der Disneykultur, wechselt ab mit Untergangsvisionen der Seele, die Göttlichkeit des Kindes kontrastiert mit Horrorbildern von Kinderschändung. Sein Grundthema aber bleibt die Gewalt, das physische und seelische Leid, das ein Mensch dem anderen zufügt. Der Künstler variiert dieses Thema innerhalb zweier Komplexe, die sich über viele Jahre hin durch sein Werk ziehen. ... Gottfried Helnwein, Gregory Fuller, DuMont