July 1st, 2003
www.pileup.com
Gottfried Helnwein, Children
Trevor Brown, Gottfried Helnwein
While Brown shares many interests with the surrealist Hans Bellmer (dolls, lolitas and bondage), the only other analogies within the world of contemporary art can be found in the early watercolours portraying bandaged children by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein and in the freak children sculptures by the Chapman brothers, besides the few artists (including Damien Hirst and Mark Ryden) that Brown declared to esteem. (excerpt)
Beautiful Victim II
Beautiful Victim I
Crocodile Rock
Roter Mund (Red Mouth)
"Helnwein's subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead creates the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within." — Robert Flynn Johnson, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco