ARTISTHelnwein

"In a very poetic way [Hanoch Levin] describes the world we live in," says Helnwein, "with the child as metaphor for innocence, purity, confronted with the corrupt adult world. The adult characters, even the mother and father, are all archetypes; the child doesn't understand this world. With complete trust, he thinks that the bond between himself and his mother is unbreakable, but, of course, it's broken… A huge picture-wall of a sleeping child, through which the soldiers break, is the first of four amazing sets, culminating in a "universe of dead children in an infinity of space."

Friedman Benda is pleased to announce its representation of the Austrian born artist Gottfried Helnwein. The artist’s first New York solo exhibition opens September 17th featuring a singular painting and two documentary films, an installation that calls to mind live performance. A second exhibition presenting a new body of work, currently in progress, will open at Friedman Benda in May 2010.

For Helnwein, the child is the symbol of innocence, but also of innocence betrayed. In today’s world, the malevolent forces of war, poverty, and sexual exploitation and the numbing, predatory influence of modern media assault the virtue of children. Robert Flynn Johnson, the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, has assembled a thought-provoking selection of Helnwein’s works and provided an insightful essay on his art in this exhibition catalogue. Helnwein’s work concerning the child includes paintings, drawings, and photographs, and it ranges from subtle inscrutability to scenes of stark brutality. Of course, brutal scenes—witness The Massacre of the Innocents—have been important and regularly visited motifs in the history of art. What makes Helnwein’s art significant is its ability to make us reflect emotionally and intellectually on the very expressive subjects he chooses. Many people feel that museums should be a refuge in which to experience quiet beauty divorced from the coarseness of the world. This notion sells short the purposes of art, the function of museums, and the intellectual curiosity of the public. The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein will inspire and enlighten many; it is also sure to upset some. It is not only the right but the responsibility of the museum to present art that deals with important and sometimes controversial topics in our society.

Auf rund 3.000 m2 Ausstellungsfläche spannt die Präsentation einen reichen Bogen vom französischen Impressionismus bis zur Kunst der Gegenwart. Mit wichtigen Werken des späten Picasso, Exponaten von Mark Rothko oder Francis Bacon führt die Ausstellung bis zur Kunst der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und findet ihren Abschluss mit Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer und Gottfried Helnwein. Die rund 200 Exponate stammen aus der über 30.000 Arbeiten umfassenden Sammlung an Gegenwartskunst der Albertina und der Sammlung Batliner.

Gottfried Helnwein, Chuck Close, Marie Jo Lafontaine, Jannis Kounnellis, Helmuth Newton, Erwin Wurm, John Coplans, Elke Krystufek. Die Ausstellung "Body and Language" präsentiert diese unterschiedlichen künstlerischen Positionen mit ca. 80 Fotoarbeiten aus den Beständen der Albertina.

One man show

The Armory Show – Modern is a new section dedicated to international dealers specializing in historically significant Modern and contemporary art. This new program is being held on Pier 92 concurrent with The Armory Show, The International Fair of New Art on Pier 94. With one admission ticket, visitors to The Armory Show on March 5 - 8 will now have access not only to the newest developments in the art world, but also to the masterpieces that heralded them.

Modernism Inc, San Francisco, Barry Friedman, New York

Monumentalgemälde an der Linken Wienzeile in Wien

The exhibition includes works by: Basil Blackshaw, Dorothy Cross, William Crozier, Mary FitzGerald, Martin Gale, Gottfried Helnwein, Elizabeth Magill, Janet Mullarney, Paul Nugent, Hughie O’Donoghue, Linda Quinlan.

Mit der Ausstellung «Nach 1970 - Österreichische Kunst aus der Albertina» setzt die Albertina eine Reihe fort, die sie im Vorjahr mit «Kunst nach 1970» begonnen hat. Diesmal liegt das besondere Augenmerk auf Österreich. Gezeigt werden rund 220 Werke, die einen weiteren Einblick in die insgesamt über 20'000 Arbeiten umfassende Sammlung an Gegenwartskunst der Albertina geben. Mit dieser Präsentation werden auch die neu errichteten Ausstellungsräume der Albertina im zweiten Obergeschoss eröffnet. Erstmals werden dabei zum Großteil jüngere Sammlungszuwächse der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt. In der um 2'000 m² erweiterten Ausstellungsfläche werden Werke von über 33 Künstlerinnen und

Artists are the visual, verbal, and audio guardians of our collective consciousness. For example, few can remember the politics or history of 18th century Europe, but the music of Mozart and the paintings of Watteau continue to be a source of inspiration. We might not always like the message, but it is artists that distil the essence of an era. They serve as thoughtful messengers to a sometimes unperceptive present but an often receptive future.
 — Robert Flynn Johnson Gottfried Helnwein Catalogue for Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Mit Werken von Helnwein, Nitsch, Kubin, Deutschbauer&Spring, Moises, Hauenschild&Ritter und Anzinger.

Collectors contemporary presents its most evocative works to date

İstanbul Modern, Orhan Cem Çetin ve Murat Germen'in yönettiği, ayda bir kez gerçekleştirilen olan Çağdaş Fotoğraf Serileri’ne devam ediyor. İzleyicilerden aktif katılım beklenen bir tartışma ve paylaşma platformu olan Çağdaş Fotoğraf Serileri’nin 19 Temmuz tarihinde gerçekleştirilecek buluşmasında tartışma konusu, Avusturyalı çağdaş sanatçı Gottfried Helnwein olacak.

The exhibition Angels Sleeping is a thematic cross-section, predominantly of the painting work of the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein. The five sections of the exhibition present the fundamental circuits of Helnwein’s work. The introduction comprises heads – faces, including the artist’s iconic self-portrait, painfully acute metaphors of the limits on freedom of expression in Austria in the 1970s and 80s. The artist’s merciless approach to the residues of the Nazi past of his country is a further theme, developed in monochrome, hyperrealistic painting. The central and still extremely relevant theme of Helnwein’s work however is das malträtierte Kind, the child exposed to suffering. The author engages with this theme in various positions from his early works from the 1970s up to the present day. His collection of works on this theme is given the largest space. Violence committed against children, in contrast with their passive exposure, distressed astonishment and impossibility of defending themselves against the world of adults is partially shifted into a further position, ironically entitled Art in Amerika. This presents the relationships of the white, frequently uniformed “majority” to other ethnic groups and minorities, particularly in the United States, sharpened by the photographic precision of the images.

Chargesheimer, Claude Fauville, Bettina Gruber, David Hockney, Jürgen Klauke, Floris M. Neusüss, Herbert Döring-Spengler,Gottfried Helnwein, u.a.

Gottfried Helnwein konzipierte und organisierte die erste Musumsausstellung des künstlerischen Werkes von Carl Barks. Von 1994 bis 1997 wurde die Retrospektive in zehn europäischen Museen gezeigt und von über 700 000 Menschen gesehen. - 2007 stellt er die Ausstellung für das Karikaturmuseum Krems neu zusammen, die nun das erste mal in Österreich gezeigt wird.

Various themes and concerns are explored by the artists including gender, social, and ethnic identity perception of the self (Su-en Wong); distortions of scale (Eisenman and Philips); use of cartoon or highly stylized imagery (Wesley, Ali, Fujita, Ofili); utilizing the superhero image (Warhol and Ramos); revisiting the Surreal figure (Tyson, Dingle, Quinn, Gormley); composite images of fictional characters (Kauper, Yuskavage, Currin, Lijun, Schütte); emotionally charged faces and forms (Flannigan, Gottfried Helnwein); a twisted notion of reality that reflects a dark world view (McLane, Middlebrook); images of the human form moving through time and space (Herring, Nauman); and the spirit of Neo-expressionism (Clemente, Brown).

Helnwein was deeply influenced by the Holocaust, as well as by popular cultural references like comics and rock music. His imagery is unsettling, dark, and deeply compelling, carrying powerful messages of political disturbance and social unease.