Austrian born artist Gottfried Helnwein so often finds himself in the eye of the storm, it must feel like home. He is known for highly charged paintings and photographs of suffering children, Nazi themes, and then also magnificent bucolic landscapes. His fans outnumber his detractors, though, and he has won many admirers and collectors both in his adoptive home of Los Angeles, and around the world. Among them, California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenneger, actor Sean Penn, and musician Marilyn Manson, who is a frequent subject.
He identifies strongly with the oppressed, and society's most vulnerable members: children. "When I see how kids grow up , how they are neglected and mistreated , how they get polluted with drugs, junk food, insane television and bad schools, it's terrible, - and dangerous, because they are our future. Children are sacred - we need to protect, support and encourage them." ...

She loved to entertain and frequently opened her home to host international artists, including Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein and Spanish-Argentine mezzo soprano Marisa Martins. "She was the most wonderful light for all of us," said painter Ira Yeager. "It's such a loss -- for both the valley and the city."
Martin Muller, owner of Modernism Gallery in San Francisco and the American dealer for Gottfried Helnwein, said she was "one of the rare, truly genuine, creative souls who happened to be a part of high society. She was nurturing to artists, notably Gottfried. She was always bringing creative people together. Erika was a bohemian with sparkle." ...

What dominates, however, in a manner I've seldom seen is Helnwein's use of color -- the monochromatic blue of Act 1 even extends to skin color. Herr von Faninal's house is bathed in a rich golden sheen, from the orange glow of Ochs' silly wig to the platinum of the lovely Sophie's almost-there dress. The final act, in a cheap restaurant, is mainly a glaring red, again from Ochs' wig to his skin and the costumes of the huge band of players. The walls of the restaurant are, incidentally, lined with Helnwein's own works, mainly huge photo-realistic portraits of contemporary women. The 200 costumes Helnwein designed for the piece deserve a whole review for themselves this is inventiveness gone wild, a genius concept, and a huge addition to the production. There might be purists in disagreement here, but this would seem to be a "Rosenkavalier" for the ages. ...

"For me, art is a way to fight back against everything I've experienced: I wanted to respond, but I didn't know how to articulate it. But I could paint it. That medium opened all doors. Certain images can reach so deeply into people's souls.
"And I feel also like a witness to my times - that's my duty, my responsibility." One role of art, he believes, is to "force people to look at things they would rather not look at," an impulse he sees in Goya and Shakespeare. ...

... a visual rewrite of a work so encrusted in a much-observed tradition that you’d think the slightest new move might upset the balance. But no, from the opening in a bedroom furnished not in period fustian but in bare walls magically drenched in Alan Burrett’s saturated lighting, to the glorious overstatement of the look of the Baron himself, who seems costumed in neon, to the Marschallin’s final entrance, when the flush of her face seems to have drained into the unsexed blue of her gown, this is a story told in color and transformed — by the design genius of Gottfried Helnwein — into a Rosenkavalier freshly renewed. ...

The 21st century artist Gottfried Helnwein has succeeded for many of the same reasons as Strauss, and you would think he'd be the perfect man to design new sets and costumes for Rosenkavalier. In his Downtown Los Angeles studio, Helnwein paints photorealistic portraits of beautiful women, innocent children and Irish landscapes, then undercuts it with grotesque images of the damaged and the misbegotten. His theater design follows the same lead. Like Strauss, Helnwein's art is strangely populist at the same time it revels in morbid undertones.
The marriage is a happy one: Helnwein plays with a monochromatic canvas (each act has its own color, including face paint); has fun with big, cartoonish Alice-in-Wonderland costumes; and does sometimes hint at the decadent underbelly of the work. ...

Along with direction by cinema great Maximilian Schell, this original go at Richard Strauss’ opera of the young rose-bearer was designed by Viennese visual virtuoso Gottfried Helnwein. The team has created a surrealist environment undefined by any specific time or place. Visually, characters range from over the top froo-froo to contemporary, with nightmarish interpretations of Venetian masqueraders and creeping minions of the lecherous Lerchenau in between. Each act is bathed in its own primary color suited to the general feeling as if you’re watching through a giant mood ring. ...

The LAO's compelling new production of Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" bears the intriguing vision of Hollywood legend, actor/director Maximilian Schell, and the marvellous designs of Austrian-born, Los Angeles-based visual artist Gottfried Helnwein.
Helnwein's brilliant costumes are also character driven. Sophie's duenna Marianne (soprano Susan Foster) is garbed like a Shakespearean nurse, Sophie is an idealized Helen of Troy, while the schemers Valzacchi and Annina (tenor Anthony Laciura and mezzo-soprano Margaret Thompson) could be straight out of Mozart's "Don Giovanni'. In short a production that clearly needs to be visited again and again to fully reveal its symbolic and metaphoric riches.
Perhaps the greatest glory of this "Der Rosenkavalier" is its visual unpredictability. ...

The von Faninal Palace set for Act II was an absolutely astounding use of space. Almost all of the characters entered from the sides of the stage, at least two stories high. They descended to ground level by use of a two huge curved staircases which come together at the top. All around on the second floor is a chest high balustrade and the entire structure is supported by a series of columns which go through the second floor and continue upwards from there. The structure was in white, but lighting designer Alan Burrett bathed the entire scene in a “daylight” type gel. Because of the elaborateness of the set for Act II (and the time required to “build” it and then break it down again), the sets for Acts I and III were the same, merely a big box, dressed differently. It is a brilliant concept. ...

Born in Vienna in 1948, Gottfried Helnwein has developed a very powerful and idiosyncratic visual vocabulary reflected in his masterful use of multiple media (painting, drawing, photography, performance, and stage design). Helnwein addresses a broad range of social and political issues, resulting in challenging and provocative artworks. Although at times very disturbing, these works are consistently moving, and seek spiritual beauty often approaching the transcendental. ...