Historian Peter Selz has compared Gottfried Helnwein's tortured, screaming, and bandaged self-portraits to Messerschmidt's sculptural self-portraits,
but the artist has said, " The reason why I took up the subject of self-portraits and why I have put myself on stage was to function as a kind of representative.
There is nothing autobiographical, no therapy, and it says nothing about me personally.
I am always available as a model." ... ...

Die Ausstellung präsentiert vierzig ausgewählte Statements großer Photographen des 20.Jahrhunderts:
von Cartier-Bresson, Lebeck, Chargesheimer bis zu Klauke und Helnwein wird jeweils eine bedeutende künstlerische Position gezeigt.
Die Ausstellung konzentriert sich nicht auf das Einzelbild, sondern komponiert ganze Werkgruppen zu großformatigen Tableaus und unterstreicht so den "journalistischen Aspekt" in der Photographie dieses Jahrhunderts.
Einen Abschluß findet dieser Jahrhundertrückblick in drei künstlerischen Positionen, die in sehr persönlicher Weise Stellung zur gesellschaftlichen Situation beziehen:
Jürgen Klaukes "Self Performance" (1972/73), Philip Pococks Berliner Szenen (1982)
sowie Gottfried Helnweins "Poems" (1998). ...

...

Helnwein
In the Dominican church, Krems
Museum of Lower Austria
Catalogue
HELNWEIN APOKALYPSE
Museum of Lower Austria
Text by Peter Zawrel
Chief Curator, Lower Austria County Museum of Art ...

February 1999 - on tour till 2001
started at the Ansel Adams Center for Photography,
San Francisco
catalogue: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York,
ISBN 0-8109-4358-1

group show

The Choice, was an exhibition that identified unknown and emerging artists through the viewpoint of leading contemporary artists. We invited an international group of artists to engage their own curatorial ideas. In the role of curator, these artists had been asked to present the work of artists they have followed or whose work has affected them in a personal way.
Curator/Artists
Ida Applebroog: Jane Higgins, Saeri Kiritani, Lisa Petsu Lagunes
Nicole Eisenman: Alison Kelly, Maria E. Piñeres, Suzanne Wright
Robert Gober: Jonathon Hexner
Antony Gormley: Ignassi Aballi, John Patrick Clayman
Gottfried Helnwein: Iris Andraschek, Danielle Kraay
Damien Hirst: Rachel Howard
Cindy Sherman: Charles Clough, Susan Jennings, David Krueger, Gail Le Boff
Laurie Simmons: Helen Rousakis, Pedro Barbeito
Kiki Smith: Joey Kötting
Sam Taylor-Wood: Georgie Hopton ...

Wäinö Aaltonens museum inleder höstsäsongen med en utställning av arbeten av österrikaren Gottfried Helnwein (f. 1948 i Wien). Här finns stora m†lningar vars tematik borrar sig in i smärtpunkterna i 1900-talets allmänna och personhistoria, här finns fotografier av den moderna kulturens märkesmän från Andy Warhol till Keith Richards samt teckningar, akvareller och arbeten i blandteknik. Helnweins konst har den stora allmänheten lärt känna främst genom hans affischer. Han är också känd från pärmbilder till Life och Time. I sina arbeten behandlar Helnwein religionens och den allmänna moralens inverkan på barnens och minoriteternas ställning samt t.ex. åsterrikes och Tysklands nazistiska förflutna och det aktiva bortglömmandet av den. Både i hans porträtt och i hans psykologiskt träffande studier framträder en ångestfylld värdevärld. ...

"I ask, I do not answer."
- My works are questions, not answers, says the Austrian, Gottfried Helnwein,
time and time again focusing on the most sore points of contemporary, general and private history.
The retrospective exhibition of this controversial artist was opened yesterday in Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art and is open until 22nd of November.
Helnwein says he became an artist because, being born after the war, he had so many questions to ask.
He also stresses that the same questions must be asked again and again.
"I, as probably every artist does, have only one theme which I incessantly vary. The use of diverse techniques is but a means of getting closer to one's original goals." ...

The child has grown into a world famous artist. But he has carried his questions with him. Today opens a large retrospective exhibition of Helnwein's art in Waino Aaltonen Museum of Art in Turku. The exhibition contains aquarels, oil paintings, drawings and photographs. They have often caused controversies by dealing with subjects that are all too sensitive. ...