Helnwein's self-portraits have long since become icons, his stained bandaged head, the grimacing, screaming face, abused with clips or forks. These pictures are unmistakable, original, and yet they are still at home in the framework of (Austrian) art. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, the Viennese Actionists, Arnulf Rainer have related intentions when they show the human body and the face as the scene of massive social conflicts, whose victim is always the resistive individual. he images of wounded, maimed, deformed children are harder to bear. The sight of them can incite strong aversion. The revulsion of those struck by the images, the defensiveness: Is that necessary? Yes, says Helnwein, it is necessary.