Gottfried HELNWEIN. "Sans Titre"
Huile sur béton Fragment Mur de Berlin 1990 - 100 x 120 cm.
Collection Art Liberté, Paris - France.
Gottfried Helnwein: Né en 1948 à Vienne, Autriche.

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Artist of inner Turmoil.
Gottfried Helnwein's works from the 1980's are represented by the self-portraits in his "Black Mirror" series. However, these works reach far beyond the boundaries of the ordinary self-portrait.
They reflect the inner wants and desperation which lies within the viewer's own self.
Helnwein points out the new form of the modern self-portrait which involves the creator and viewer alike. ...

"Helnwein - Der Untermensch" wurde als eines der schönsten Bücher des Jahres 1988 ausgezeichnet. ...

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It was to our good fortune that Gottfried Helnwein also strove to break away from the museum and gallery sector in order to communicate with a larger public. This appeared on a grand scale on the site between the cathedral and Museum Ludwig, and at a time of "photokina", with its hundreds of thousands of visitors. The 100 metre picture wall did not fail to hit its mark: it induced bewilderment as well as aggressiveness. After a few days numerous pictures had been slashed, one even stolen. Gottfried Helnwein saw the exhibition as a process which would continue and be reflected in later presentations. The pictures were not renewed, but patched up, so that this reminder of the persecution of Jewish people would bear the traces of a lack of insight and understanding in the present day. ...

Hinter dem Dom hatte kürzlich der Maler Gottfried Helnwein zur Erinnerung an die sogenannte Reichskristallnacht siebzehn bleich geschminkte Riesenportaits von Kinderköpfen aufgestellt.
Die von Maler beabsichtigte "rassische" Ähnlichkeit der Kinder mit jenen Bevölkerungsgruppen, die damals von den Nazis verfolgt wurden, besass eine vergleichbare Evidenz des Zufalls wie die Geistertöne aus Graz.
Unbekannte fühlten sich angesprochen.
Sie haben jetzt die Bilder mit Messern traktiert und den abgebildeten Kindern buchstäblich die Kehle duchgeschnitten. Erst durch die Zerstörung seines Werks nimmt Helnweins Aussage Gestalt an.
Bill Fontanas Mikrophone hätten in dieser Kölner Nacht das aufzeichnen können, was sie in Graz vergeblich suchten. ...

Gottfried Helnwein’s photography project “Ninth November Night," a spectacular work of art that recalls the destruction of the synagogues during the so-called “Reichskristallnacht,” was itself the target of an attack.
On Monday night an unknown person destroyed all seventeen child portraits with knife slashes. The portraits had been set up between the Museum Ludwig and the Dome of Cologne.
Helnwein had financed the project himself. ...

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. ...