ARTISTHelnwein

County Museum of Lower Austria

"As long ago as 1963 a fellow-artist and I imagined the horrible future of a free-lance artist. The topic of our discussion was not so much finances as the necessity of letting go and totally abandoning oneself. At the time I had the idea of inventing something like a 'fitness training of geniuses'. In retrospect I must say that I know very few artists who have persevered in this imaginary training programme. Gottfried Helnwein is one of them."

Exit Art has organized this show: 24 artists, most of them novices to the scene, were picked by 13 artists. The international selectors included Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood, Nari Ward, Gottfried Helnwein, Ronald Jones, Cindy Sherman and Kiki Smith. Among what's notable are Iris Andraschek's creepy fish-tank concoctions, picked by Gottfried Helnwein...