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Gottfried Helnwein (born October 8, 1948 in Vienna) is an Austrian fine artist, photographer, and performance artist.
It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition:
to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows.
- Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition.
William Burroughs
"Beautiful Victim", watercolor, 1974
Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien). He was awarded the Master-class prize (Meisterschulpreis) of the University of Visual Art, Vienna, the Kardinal-König prize and the Theodor-Körner prize .
His early work consists mainly of hyper-realistic watercolors, depicting wounded children, as well as performances - often with children - in public spaces. Helnwein is a conceptual artist, concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. As a result of this, his work is often considered provocative and controversial. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media. Helnwein is also known for his stage and costume designs of theater, ballet and opera productions. amongst them Staatsoper Hamburg , Volksbühne Berlin and Los Angeles Opera .
1 Chronology
- 1982 Helnwein was offered a chair by the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, which he declined.
- 1985 Rudolf Hausner , recommended Helnwein as his successor as professor of the master-class for painting at the University of Visual Art in Vienna, but Helnwein leaves Vienna and moves to Germany.
- The film "Helnwein", produced by the German and Austrian National televisions, received the Adolf-Grimme prize for best television-documentary.
- Besides his realistic work, Helnwein also began to develop abstract, expressive styles of painting during this period.
"Epiphany I (Adoration of the Magi)", mixed media on canvas, 1996
- 1988, In remembrance of " Kristallnacht", the actual beginning of the Holocaust - 50 years earlier, Helnwein erected a 100 meter long installation in the city center of Cologne, between Ludwig Museum and the Cologne cathedral.
Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work.
- 1990 Helnwein began to focus on digital photography and computer-generated images which he often combines with classical oil-painting technics.
- 1997 Moved to Ireland.
- In the same year the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg organizes a Helnwein retrospective and publishes a monograph of the artist.
- 2000 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other American museums show Helnwein's work.
- 2001 Stage and costume design for the Hamburgische Staatsoper of Igor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky ( June 17, 1882 April 6, 1971) was a composer of modern classical music. He wrote works in the neo-classical and serialist styles, but he is best known for two works from his earlier, Russian period: The Rite of Spring and The’s opera " The Rake's ProgressThe Rake's Progress is an English opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto was written by W. Auden and Chester Kallman based loosely on the paintings and engravings The Rakes Progress (1733-1735) of William Hogarth. It was firs".
- 2002 He established a studio in Los AngelesThis article is about the city in California. For other uses of 'Los Angeles' see Los Angeles (disambiguation The City of Los Angeles widely known by its abbreviation L. is a large coastal metropolis in Southern California in the western United States..
- Premiere of the Helnwein documentary Neunter November Nacht (Ninth November Night) at the Museum of ToleranceThe Museum of Tolerance is a multimedia museum designed to examine racism and prejudice in the United States and the world, and the history of the Holocaust, in particular. It is sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Los Angeles The original museum in, Simon WiesenthalSimon Wiesenthal (born December 31, 1908 in Buczacz, Austria-Hungary, in an area which is now part of Ukraine) is best known for gathering information on Nazi war criminals so that they can be brought to trial. Wiesenthal himself is a survivor of the Holo Center, Los Angeles. *Collaboration with Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson eponymous band of the lead singer of the same name, is an American industrial rock outfit, based in Hollywood, California. History of the band As a band, Marilyn Manson got their start in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1990 as Marilyn Manson & on the multi-media project "The Golden Age of Grotesque". Also video and film projects with Sean PennSean Penn (born August 17, 1960) is a American film actor noted for his inflammatory and sometimes violent personality. Penn is the son of director Leo Penn, who was blacklisted during McCarthyism for refusing to testify. He has two brothers: actor Chris.
- 2004 "The Child" one-man show at the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum.
- Collaboration with Maximilian Schell for the Richard Strauss opera " Der Rosenkavalier” at the Los Angeles Opera.
- Helnwein receives the Irish citizenship.
- 2005 Helnwein retrospective at the National Art Museum in Beijing.
Gottfried Helnwein currently lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles.
