March 8th, 2008
Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery
I Walk Alone - Helnwein one man show
San Jose State University
Helnwein was deeply influenced by the Holocaust, as well as by popular cultural references like comics and rock music. His imagery is unsettling, dark, and deeply compelling, carrying powerful messages of political disturbance and social unease.

Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery

School of Art and DesignSan Jose State UniversitySan Jose, CA 95192-0089SJSU GalleryJo Farb Hernandez, Director

I Walk Alone

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN

ArtweekDebra Koppman01. March 2008

Gottfried Helnwein’s exhibition I Walk Alone is pretty unnerving, and that is his point. Large-scale photo-realistic paintings confront the viewer like a series of film stills forming a bizarre and disturbing sequence of nightmares. Using digital photography and computer-generated images combined with classical painting techniques, many of the images are only black and white, while others use one additional color, such as red, to dramatic and horrifying effect.
The images might be seen as bits of individual stories, or pieced together in a variety of frightful ways, or seen as a generalized narrative of brutality and terror, in which innocence is perhaps relative. We are all implicated in Helnwein’s unfolding dramas.
"I Walk Alone", one man show