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:: Gottfried Helnwein :
»Andy Warhol, New York« [1983]
»Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles« [1984]
»William S. Burroughs, Lawrence, USA« [1990]
»Michael Jackson, Köln« [1988]
»Willy Brandt, Bonn« [1989]
»Keith Richards, Berlin« [1990] ...

Alexander Bogomazov, R. Crumb, James Hayward, Gottfried Helnwein, George Koskas, Naomie Kremer, Le Corbusier, Kazimir Malevich, Mel Ramos, John Register, David Simpson, Mark Stockand more. ...

group show ...

Opens Tue - slide lecture at 5pm; viewing 6pm; free; runs through Sept. 24 ...

The film tells the story of famed Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein, obsessed with a mission to use his art to preserve the memory of Holocaust persecutions. ...

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. ...

..A clarity of vision in his subject matter was emerging in Helnwein's art that was to stay consistent throughout his career. His subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art, although it included self-portraits, is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead created the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.
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"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot, which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie."
Jean Cocteau ...

Für das 8.Internationale Schumann-Fest in Düsseldorf brachte man nun ein kongeniales Team zusammen, um eine komplette szenische Umsetzung in der altehrwürdigen Tonhalle zu realisieren.
Gregor Seyffert – mit Preisen geradezu überschüttete Tanzikone – hat zusammen mit Gottfried Helnwein – international geachteter Künstler und Bühnenbildner – ein im wesentlichen tänzerisches, hochintelligentes Konzept entworfen, welches alle Mittel moderner, multimedialer Bühnengestaltung beinhaltet; dem Besucher gehen förmlich die Augen über. Vor lauter medialer Aktivität könnte man fast die traumhaft schöne Musik und den Gesang vergessen.
Frenetischer, nicht enden-wollender Beifall, eines begeisterten Düsseldorfer Publikums, für einen Abend, den keiner so schnell vergessen wird. Lebendigstes Musiktheater, welches der sich zur Zeit im Tiefschlaf befindenden Deutschen Oper am Rhein nicht nur konkurrenzlos den Ruhm abgräbt, sondern zeigt, daß Düsseldorf durchaus Weltklasse bieten kann. Warum nicht öfter ? ...

Director, Choreographer: Gregor Seyffert & Compagnie Berlin
Conductor: John Fiore
Sopran: Jörg Waschinski
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker
Chor des Städtischen Musikvereins Düsseldorf ...