December 1st, 2004
Palace of the Legion of Honor
'The Child' Exhibition - 130,000 VISITORS- The reviews
Summary of reviews and texts
Adults bring a trunkful of contradictory cultural baggage to any representations of children. That's what makes the work of Helnwein so powerful. In his show, "The Child," at the Legion of Honor (of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums), deformed infants and bandaged children stir feelings of pity, defiance and uneasiness about exploitation. There's an ambiguously disturbing painting of a girl aiming a gun into an open refrigerator and another of a bare-breasted mother and child surrounded by Aryan soldiers.
But the most haunting images may be the ones of children who seem strangely oblivious to the adult gaze. Some of Helnwein's children peer right past the onlooker. Others sleep, dreaming of anything but us behind their silky eyelids. And some, like the enormous, half- shadowed "Head of a Child" at the Legion, see straight through us with cloudless, infinite blue eyes.
Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle, 17. November 2004
"The Child", works by Gottfried Helnwein
The Child- ゴットフリード・ヘルンウｪイン（Gottfried Helnwein）標題の美術館に、行ってきました。実は前日の月曜日にもサンフランシスコにいたのですが、たいていの美術館や博物館は、月曜が休み。なので観れず。諦めきれなかった僕は、翌日再度サンフランシスコへ行きました。ちなみに、前日はステイ先のおっさんの車に乗せてもらいましたが、この日は一人で電車（カルトレイン）に乗って行きました。結構市街地からは離れた所にありまして、バスを乗り継いで行く必要があります。美術館まで行くのは、18番のバス。なんと、ラッキーなことに火曜日は入場無料。そのせいでしょうか、お年寄りや、学校の社会見学と思しき生徒たちと先生の姿が目に付きます。この美術館で有名なのは、なんといってもロダンの「考える人（The Thinker）」でしょう。なんて、入ってすぐの前庭、目の前にあります。なんだか不思議な気分です。その割には、周りの人たちは結構無関心だったりしますが。見慣れてるんでしょうか。ここには、ロダンの多数の彫刻をはじめ、マネ、モネ、ゴッホ、ピカソといった有名どころを含めた多数の絵画があります。それらも印象的だったのですが、ここで最も、いや、今回の旅行で最も印象的だったものに、ここで出会いました。ゴットフリード・ヘルンウｪイン（Gottfried Helnwein）。この片仮名表記で合ってるかどうかわかりませんが。オーストリア人アーティストです。現在のコンテンポラリーでは、彼の作品展「The Child」が開催されていました。
REVIEWS AND TEXTS:
Director of Museums
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco — GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN: THE CHILD
Curator in Charge, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco — California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Colin Berry
GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN AT THE LEGION OF HONOR — Helnwein is our chronicler, our conscience, the antidote to our failing memories. He refuses to let us forget.
Kenneth Baker
Chronicle Art Critic — DARK AND DETACHED, THE ART OF GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN DEMANDS A RESPONSE.
Anita Amirrezvani
INNOCENCE LOST — THOUGHT-PROVOKING ART BY HELNWEIN DISTURBS IN REMARKABLE SAN FRANCISCO SHOW
Janos Gereben
LEGION'S 'THE CHILD' - FOR ADULTS ONLY — An artist with conscience, a fearless man with a penchant for profoundly bizarre and complex, meaningful images, Gottfried Helnwein is making a grand re-entry to San Francisco. His work was exhibited here four years ago when his freaky mixed-media portrait of Mickey Mouse - "Mouse I" - was part of the SF Museum of Modern Art's "The Darker Side of Playland - Childhood Imagery."
РАССКАЗ О СЧАСТЛИВОМ ДЕТСТВЕ
Портрет Хельнвейна работы Михаила Лемхина — San Francisco weekly KSTATI
GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN, "THE CHILD", AT THE LEGION OF HONOR, SAN FRANCISCO
25. August 2004 — Working Artist's Journal
Liz Lufkin
SAN FRANCISCO - THE CALIFORNIA PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOR — "The Child": Works by Gottfried Helnwein
The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein
July 31, 2004 — November 28, 2004
"I think that as an artist my strongest reaction to Helnwein's work is that it challenges me to be better at what I do. There are very few people that achieve utter excellence in what they do.
And I think that Gottfried Helnwein is certainly one of those people."