Art critic Klaus Honnef lauded Helnwein as "the legitimate air to Beuys and Warhol, " highlighting his ability to defy the artistic boundaries of the social and political realm."
After posing for a photographic portrait in 1990, William Burroughs said of Helnwein’s work, " You can’t show anyone anything he hasn’t seen already, on some level any more than you can tell anyone anything he doesn’t already know. 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 what he knows. Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition. ...

Outside the Osbournes’ mansion last week, Manson and modernist Viennese artist Gottfried Helnwein premiered two paintings from a collection that will be used as The Golden Age Of Grotesque’s artwork and will travel with the singer. Inspired by the glamour of 1930s Hollywood, the grotesque of vaudeville and the erotic art movement in Weimar Berlin, the pieces are disturbing portraits of Manson wearing the classic Mickey Mouse ears hat.
"This is an image of innocence and an image of childish nightmares," Manson explained. "This is, to me, growing up in America, what I saw in entertainment and the contrasting extremes of beauty and ugliness. ...

Outside the Osbournes' mansion last week, Manson and modernist Viennese artist Gottfried Helnwein premiered two paintings from a collection that will be used as The Golden Age of Grotesque's artwork and will travel with the singer. Inspired by the glamour of 1930s Hollywood, the grotesque of vaudeville and the erotic art movement in Weimar Berlin, the pieces are disturbing portraits of Manson wearing the classic Mickey Mouse ears hat.
"This is an image of innocence and an image of childish nightmares," Manson explained. "This is, to me, growing up in America, what I saw in entertainment and the contrasting extremes of beauty and ugliness. ...

"Kids and guns is a big issue in society today, especially in America," explains Helnwein," One aspect of these pictures refers to the Columbine High School shootings, when Manson was blamed. And now the whole country is going to war. America worships guns. Every day you hear of child abuse. There are these cases with the Roman Catholic church. We're living in a crazy society. I believe a true artist will always reflect the state society is in." ...

Die Symboltiefe des Stücks versucht die Inszenierung in albtraumartig verrätselten Bildern szenisch einzufangen. Deren Motive erinnern bisweilen an die bedrückende Atmosphäre mancher Zeichnungen von Helnwein: die grausig auf dem Bett der Kaiserin herumlungernde Falkenfigur etwa, mit ihrer langen, gebogenen Schnabelnase, die surreal kahlen Räume, das klinisch von oben einfallende Licht sowie allerlei über die Bühne schleichende, zwielichtige Statistengestalten mit gipsernen Tiermasken ...

Gottfried Helnwein's extensive 1997 retrospective at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg gave visitors an overview of his work going back to his street actions in Vienna in the 1970s, his grimacing iconic self-portraits that suggest self-mutilation, and on to his menacing canvases depicting the evils of the Third Reich.
He has worked as a painter. draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor and performance artist. His work is consistently concerned with psychological anxiety.
In his new series of paintings, done in somber monochrome blues, he continues to work with singulae sense of suspense and mystery. ...

 
Although cartoons and caricatures have played an important role in Western culture since the Middle Ages, the development of the comic strip and comic books are a unique American phenomenon and has contributed significantly to American visual culture.
...Gottfried Helnwein's "American Prayer," which is a large hyper-realistic painting of a boy kneeling in bedtime prayer to a large and looming Donald Duck.
About Helnwein's piece: Clark says, "In many ways, this is the signature piece for this whole show, because it shows how cartoon imagery has entered our culture, our world, our daily life." ...

(Illustrated Books).
Publishers Weekly; January 27, 2003
... paintings of Braque, Dali and Degas, and even an occasional piece of sculpture. Baudelaire's "Giantess" mirrors Gottfried Helnwein' s Lulu, a giantess in garters--other juxtapositions are more of an artistic stretch. As a stimulus to sexual reflection ... ...

COMIC RELEASE: NEGOTIATING IDENTITY FOR A NEW GENERATION
The Regina Gouger Miller Gallery
Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland
Through March 21
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Mickey: So, uh, guys, it's a small world after all, don't ya think?
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Spider-Man: Um, yes. I never really believed I'd ever be in a museum, sharing wall space with you, Donald Duck, or even really with Superman or that weird Ghost World guy.
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Daniel Clowes: Hey, I'm right here. I can hear you perfectly well. And it's not just me; there are other alternative comics artists here, too, like Joe Sacco and Chris Ware. We can't believe our stuff is even on the wall, let alone alongside real artists like Barry McGee, Inka Essenhigh or Gottfried Helnwein.
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Gottfried Helnwein: Yes, it's quite a mix. I'm not sure what I think about it. After all, I borrow imagery from comics, and I really appreciate the do-it-yourself ethic of 'zine editors...but still, I am a painter and my paintings really do belong in a museum. You guys belong in books, in comic book stores.
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This fictional dialogue isn't too far-fetched from the one that the curators of Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation hope visitors will engage in when they visit the show. Curators Vicky A. Clark, Barbara Bloemink, Ana Merino and Rick Gribenas know that this smart and intriguing collection of comics, both mainstream and alternative, 'zines and fine art is about dialogue in more ways than one.
...

The child stares out from the publicity photos, skin white with dust and eyes expressionless. In a society fluent in the language of news media it's almost impossible not to interpret the blank face of Gottfried Helnwein's photo Child1:
it becomes a symbol of lost innocence and silent accusation.
The show this image promotes, Close Your Little Eyes, is a music theatre-installation devised by composer and director Max Lyandvert. Taking as its starting point a lullaby from the Vilnius Ghetto, it juxtaposes visual and sound images with music scored for 16-voice children's choir, string quartet and soprano soloist. ...