The child stares out from the publicity photos, skin white with dust and eyes expressionless. In a society fluent in the language of news media it's almost impossible not to interpret the blank face of Gottfried Helnwein's photo Child1:
it becomes a symbol of lost innocence and silent accusation.
The show this image promotes, Close Your Little Eyes, is a music theatre-installation devised by composer and director Max Lyandvert. Taking as its starting point a lullaby from the Vilnius Ghetto, it juxtaposes visual and sound images with music scored for 16-voice children's choir, string quartet and soprano soloist. ...

“This is a very serious and somewhat disturbing exhibition,” said Mayor Meralee Goldman, who is supportive of the exhibit and was first approached by the Austrian artist.
“There is an important component of education to go along with this exhibit,” Human Relations Director Mary O’Gorman said. “This is a Holocaust Memorial, and the intent at times is to overwhelm.”
The exhibit is described as “an art event to focus the conscience of the viewer and, through media exposure, the conscience of the widest possible public” by the artist’s draft proposal. “An art installation a city block long...will rise into public view to cry out against not only one of history’s most tragic and horrific episodes of prejudice, but also against the current resurgence of the endangerment of children through intolerance around the world.” ...

Faкeл: Кто для вас важнее, Адольф Гитлер или Дональд Дак?
Gottfried Helnwein: Конечно, Дональд Дак. Встреча с этим персонажем в возрасте четырех лет была моей первой встречей с великим искусством. Я родился в Вене, оккупированной советскими войсками, сразу после окончания войны. Кругом разбомбленные дома, врослые казались мне разбитыми и угнетенными. Не помню, чтобы в раннем детстве кто-то пел или смеялся. Мир вокруг меня казался немым черно-белым кино в замедленной перемотке. Я чувствовал себя так, будто приземлился на чужой планете, в мире, которому не принадлежу.
Однажды вернувшийся с работы отец бросил на пол передо мной едва ли не первый немецкий перевод комиксов о Дональде Даке. Открыв эту первую в моей жизни книгу комиксов, я открыл дверь в реальный мир. Робко вошел. Я чувствовал себя так, как человек, переживший взрыв на шахте. После долгого пребывания в темноте между жизнью и смертью я вошел в яркий свет Дакбурга, и мои глаза, не привыкшие к такому яркому свету, наполнились слезами. Я глубоко вздохнул, и мои пропыленные легкие наполнились свежим воздухом.
В этом мире все снова обрело свой смысл: люди снова выглядели нормально, у них были желтые утиные клювы или собачьи морды, и каждого из них можно было безо всякого вреда для их здоровья продырявить пулями или раскатать в лепешку гигантским катком. Это был мир красок, скорости, приключений, магии и удивления. Я никогда не отступал назад, в чистилище так называемого "реального мира", и с тех пор Дональд Дак стал для меня неограниченным источником вдохновения. ...

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 ...

...

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. ...