With ironic images of toys and cartoon figures, a number of contemporary painters, photographers and sculptors take incisive aim at the emotional underbelly of childhood in The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection, on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from September 1, 2000, through January 2, 2001. Explaining how these representations question deeply rooted social mores, this exhibition includes over 30 playful and wicked works-drawn from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan-by such contemporary artists as Gottfried Helnwein, David Levinthal, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Laurie Simmons and Hung Tung-lu. As Kent Logan states, "Of the themes in our collection this exhibition will explore what I like to call 'Children's Hour.'" ...

City officials in Pontiac, Michigan are pressing ahead with obscenity charges against Detroit-area artist Jef Bourgeau. A pretrial hearing is scheduled in district court on June 28.
Here is the list of artists—provided by Jef Bourgeau—included in the FEAR NO ART exhibition and the dates (when known) of the works:
78. Lucien Freud, 1998
79. David Salle, 1980
80. Imogen Cunningham, 1932
82. Gottfried Helnwein, 1988
83. Martin Kippenberger, 1990
84. Laurie Simmons, 1990 ...

Kleines Helnwein es la primera obra escrita y dirigida por Rodrigo Malmsten, hasta el momento un joven asistente a talleres de dramaturgia y actuación. Su fuente de inspiración fue la obra del pintor austríaco Gottfried Helnwein, de quien vio una muestra en Europa, hace tres años. El artista plástico trabajó como escenógrafo en algunas puestas del dramaturgo y director Heiner Müller. El personaje central de su espectáculo surge en escena como escapado de una de las obras del artista para exponer “su distanciamiento ante el dolor y su intimidad, presa en una atmósfera infantil”. En el panel central de la escenografía son proyectados algunos cuadros de Helnwein.
...

“Kleines Helnwein”, escrita y dirigida por Rodrigo Malmsten. Con Belén Blanco y Martin von Tumpling. Música: Mariano Durand y Marcelo Vignolo. En El Callejón de los Deseos, los viernes a las 21.30.
ADMIRABLE actuación de Belén Blanco en esta pieza fascinante.

Con su impecable dominio técnico, comparable con el de los maestros antiguos, el austríaco Gottfried Helnwein (52) puede ser un agudo pintor mundano y también un minucioso cronista del espanto desatado en el mundo por el afán de poder y la exasperación de la violencia. El joven director, autor y también actor Rodrigo Malmsten, formado, entre otros maestros, junto a Daniel Veronese y Alejandro Tantanián (“El periférico de objetos”), parte de la pintura de Helnwein para mostrar, en forma de drama, cómo esa violencia, impersonal y en cierto modo clínica, degrada al hombre hasta convertirlo en un objeto, en otra máquina de destrucción (y también, naturalmente, de autodestrucción). ...

A year or so back, an exhibition called Sensations caused a few upsets, first in London and then in New York. Central to the reaction was a large-scale portrait of a child-killer assembled from, if I remember correctly, the palm prints of children. So far, so bland. The shock element in art has been much talked about in the last five years but art that actually shocks has been thin on the ground during the same period.
Step forward then, Gottfried Helnwein.
By and large, if art is going to shock, it better have something shocking to say,and it's clear that Helnwein has found that. ...

"He earned his first gallery show in the 70s by driving around his native Vienna dressed in Nazi uniform, his head bandaged, fake blood trickling from his mouth. It caught the eye of an art dealer who signed him up and has remained faithful to Austria's enfant terrible ever since." The Guardian 05/16/00 ...

This made perfect sense, I thought, considering the visuals attached to their recent album Sehnsucht: portraits of the band by Gottfried Helnwein, the brilliant German artist whose gauze-wrapped and fork-embellished self-portrait had been an album cover for the Scorpions -- you know the one I'm talking about?
Helnwein had photographed the Rammstein faces after mangling and compromising them with arcane medical apparatus; and here I was, with my back mangled and compromised, being photographed by arcane medical apparatus! How very synchronistic it all was!
Why, Helnwein was probably out there right now, conducting the band in their concerted hammerstrikes, perhaps even forming a mini mosh pit with my wife or discussing the finer points of arcane medical apparatus-based face-mangling with the MRI tech! Of course! And there were streamers, too! Multicolored streamers that descended from the antiseptic rafters and twisted and shimmered like silken snakes dancing in time to the music ... ...

-La versatilità sperimentale di Helnwein sfugge ad ogni classificazione . spesso ci si dimentica anche del suo coinvolgimento attivo nell'antipsichiatria e contro l'autoritarismo a favore del disarmo e di una maggiore presa di coscienza dei problemi ecologici . Le opere più recenti di Helnwein lo vedono particolarmente attento nel rilevare la sensazione di crisi permanente a livello emozionale , il suo lavoro è carico di quasi tutte le manifestazioni della violenza , storiche e attuali . Il doppio ruolo dell'artista , quale vittima e carnefice , mandante ed esecutore e molte altre metamorfosi ; impersona e rappresenta le forze sociali antagoniste sul palcoscenico della propia coscienza . Con Helnwein e con le generazioni dei trentenni di oggi il sentimento romantico dell'avanguardia ha raggiunto una tensione radicale : l'artista come mancato , deluso avversario del borghese , diventa un martire di una rivoluzione che non ha raggiunto l'emancipazione dell'individuo . Perciò il ritorno del romanticismo porta anche con Helnwein a forzare uno dei suoi aspetti : la stilizzazione sotto forma di autoritratto di una protesta introversa fino al martirio , che storicamente è legato in modo contraddittorio all'opposizione sociale , alla ribellione , all'utopia .
teresa gabanacl@tin.it
il 15/01/00 alle 20:38:19 ...

14:00

Zur initialen Abschätzbarkeit von Stabilitätsgrenzen auf nichtlinearen Last-Verschiebungspfaden elastischer Strukturen mittels der Methode der Finiten Elemente , Institute for Strength of Materials, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria (1996) Dissertationen der Technischen Universität Wien, Band 79, Österreichischer Kunst- und Kulturverlag (1998),in german.

Around the man is a nondescript city street, the background fading into a pinkish smog-coloured haze. Cars and trucks bustle around on their own business, oblivious. Apart from the man only the puddle he is wading through and a coarse concrete traffic island with its filthy iron fence are detailed, and these are depicted with precision and realism. The pocks of the rain in the puddle, the wake left by the man _ these are picked out with a clarity which tells me Helnwein is working from personal experience. Where the concrete of the island meets that of the gutter can be seen the stuttered seam left by a hurried or careless worker. The fence is black and uncompromising, a grim barrier between the man and whatever he is gazing at. I know that Helnwein has been there _ for I have been there too, and that which is sharpest in his painting is that which is sharpest in my memory.
The elements that comprise the picture are ugly and brutal; there is no grace anywhere in it. Yet from these components Helnwein has built beauty, and truth, and has incorporated hope into the midst of futility. The picture has grace. ...

-La versatilità sperimentale di Helnwein sfugge ad ogni classificazione . spesso ci si dimentica anche del suo coinvolgimento attivo nell'antipsichiatria e contro l'autoritarismo a favore del disarmo e di una maggiore presa di coscienza dei problemi ecologici . Le opere più recenti di Helnwein lo vedono particolarmente attento nel rilevare la sensazione di crisi permanente a livello emozionale , il suo lavoro è carico di quasi tutte le manifestazioni della violenza , storiche e attuali . Il doppio ruolo dell'artista , quale vittima e carnefice , mandante ed esecutore e molte altre metamorfosi ; impersona e rappresenta le forze sociali antagoniste sul palcoscenico della propia coscienza . Con Helnwein e con le generazioni dei trentenni di oggi il sentimento romantico dell'avanguardia ha raggiunto una tensione radicale : l'artista come mancato , deluso avversario del borghese , diventa un martire di una rivoluzione che non ha raggiunto l'emancipazione dell'individuo . Perciò il ritorno del romanticismo porta anche con Helnwein a forzare uno dei suoi aspetti : la stilizzazione sotto forma di autoritratto di una protesta introversa fino al martirio , che storicamente è legato in modo contraddittorio all'opposizione sociale , alla ribellione , all'utopia .
teresa gabanacl@tin.it
il 15/01/00 alle 20:38:19 ...

Gottfried Helnwein ...

Gottfried Helnwein,
Un bello grito en la oscuridad de la noche
La mariposa negra, la mas bella
Estremecedor, sencible y temido, amado y repudiado,
Arrebato, a la historia su sombra, para poder exponerla y destriparla, siempre
Sutrajo de la medicina su imbecil ortopedia hasta convertirla en la burla del hombre.
El trabajo de Helnwein, es un panoptico de los deseos mas oscuros del hombre,
De lo que muchos no queremos ver de nosotros mismos.
Desacraliza idolos contemporaneos, un ejemplo de ello es La religiones y Los Dioses
Con su obra arranca de raiz la mascara de nuestra sociedad
Ha Fotografiado el lado mas estupido de las estructuras de poder para reirnos de las mismas y para temerles
Conoci a Gotfried hace algunos pocos anos, aprendi a conocerlo a descubrirlo, en el bello intento por diseccionar su maravilloso trabajo.
A partir de el, comence a escribir, su pintura una bella mordida, un bello y duro golpe en el corazon de mi craneo, un tiro de bala en el rostro del espectador,
en donde a traves de ella, de su obra, pude ver mi sombra en la tarde mas luminosa que he tenido.
La obra de Gottfried, del maginifico artista Helnwein, mi infancia que nunca se aleja, luego Kleines Helnwein, de la cual soy el autor, el director, de esa pieza teatral maldita.Mi primer pieza teatral, acepatda el publico y repudiada, por el publico, temida en las estructuras de los festivales internacionales de teatro, rechazada por la censura en plena democracia en Argentina, pais en el cual naci y creo creci.
Kleines Helnwein, Kleines Gottfried o Helnwein-Malmsten o Malmstein, Rodrigo Helnwein, escupidos, admirados, repudiados, respetados, temidos.
Goffried Helnwein, Marco Polo de la psiquis del hombre, del hombre lobo cazador de hombres, un brillante y helegantisimo artista, que con su arte muestra la cara mas oscura de la sociedad en la cual el hombre habita y en la cual el hombre muere.
Sobre las ruinas del mundo, sobre la devastacion del hombre por el hombre Gotfried Helnwein sera el espejo mas nitido de la voracidad de nuestra contemporaneidad.
Rodrigo M . Malmsten. ...

(darüber wird noch in der nächsten Katalogerweiterung gesprochen werden), ins Jazzland, das gerade aufgemacht hatte, oder ins Café Dobner, wo Joe Berger seine manischen Texte schrieb und der "König von Ungarn" mit dem "Hauptplatz-Kurti" schnapste. Auch Walter Navratil war im Dobner und erklärte, auf einem Barhocker stehend, Heinzi Kammerer die Kunst. Moldovan war immer da und die unvergeßliche Hermi, die die Schnitzel dunkler als jede andere briet. Eduard Angeli kam immer in Begleitung der schönsten Freundinnen, und Arnulf Rainer hatte bereits eine Tabelle, auf der man die zukünftigen Wertsteigerungen seiner Werke berechnen konnte. Dr. Alfred Schmeller war Hausherr im Museum für Moderne Kunst, und Heinrich von Sydow war einer der ersten Hausgaleristen der Familie Infeld. Er kam in Begleitung einer dunkelhäutigen Prinzessin und zeigte uns Bellmer, Max Ernst, aber auch früheste Fuchs-Radierungen. Für einen kleinen Verkauf oder ein Fest kam er über Nacht aus Frankfurt angefahren. ...

Gottfried Helnwein stellte uns seine Meisterzeichnung "Judaskuss" als Plakatsujet zur Verfügung. Die Aufführung wurde vom Beirat des Bundeskanzleramtes mit einer Produktionspremie bedacht. ...

With ironic images of toys and cartoon figures, a number of contemporary painters, photographers and sculptors take incisive aim at the emotional underbelly of childhood in The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection, on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from September 1, 2000, through January 2, 2001. Explaining how these representations question deeply rooted social mores, this exhibition includes over 30 playful and wicked works-drawn from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan-by such contemporary artists as Gottfried Helnwein, David Levinthal, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Laurie Simmons and Hung Tung-lu.
As Kent Logan states, "Of the themes in our collection this exhibition will explore is what I like to call 'Children's Hour.'"
Not surprisingly, the Mickey Mouse and other popular cartoon characters, take to hyperbolic extremes, surface in a number of work. Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein created a gigantic eerie portrait (approximately 83 x 122 inches) of the famous mouse in Mickey, 1995. ...

...

Tom Byrne interviews Tim O'Brien, the well-established and very famous New York based, Irish-American illustrator. His work graces the covers of such magazines as Time and Newsweek. His clients also include advertising agencies and book publishers. As established professionals go, he is among the best. In 1999 and 2000 he was even selected as one of a hundred 'Irish Americans of the Year' by Irish American Magazine. Tim, a former boxer, now enters the ring to keep fit but also works up an intense sweat by creating stunningly realistic paintings in oils to very short deadlines
-
Who influences you in terms of painting?
It's a long list and not necessarily similar to my style. I did learn quite a bit from studying the work of Gottfried Helnwein, Ingres, Paul Cadmus, George Tooker, Lord Leighton and Ivan Shishkin, to name a few. ...

Gottfried Helnwein, der Künstler als Agressor und vermaledeiter Moralist, S. 10-19, in: Helnwein, Arbeiten von 1970-1985, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Wien, 3.4.-5.5.1985, Wien 1985. ...