February 3rd, 2008
Medford Mail Tribune
Artist walks on dark side of L.A.
Lynell George
Gottfired Helnwein's studio, filled with the violent and grotesque, sits in the spleen of the city, if you will
The city's essence feeds his dark, uneasy work, which tends toward violence and the grotesque: bandaged, broken children, scenes of torture, pooling blood, grimacing visages. What he creates, regardless of the medium — watercolor, oil, photography, performance art, sculpture — is a psychological excursion into the sublimated self, the obscured corners and dark humors. His explorations into war crimes, Catholicism, disfigurement and the Holocaust are unflinching and surgical.
Gottfried Helnwein in his L.A. studio
Original article:
GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN - DARK INSPIRATION
Los Angeles TimesArts & CultureLynell George27. January 2008
Perhaps though, you could say it is the spleen -- the seat of L.A.'s spirit. This narrow curve of artery, crowded with faded brick or concrete two- and three-story structures, rises above pock-marked asphalt that snakes through the edges of the arts district. Here on this evocative, sketchy block, the Austrian-born artist fell in love with Los Angeles and decided to decamp his Irish castle (part-time anyway) to call L.A. home.
As much as what he physically keeps close by while he works -- the books, newspapers, CDs, rubber dolls and plastic figurines -- the city's essence itself feeds his dark, uneasy work, which tends toward hyper-real renderings of violence and the grotesque: bandaged, broken children, scenes of torture, pooling blood, grimacing visages. "Ireland is paradise," he says, "but almost too. For my work I need an urban environment." — Some might think that Los Angeles -- its unrelenting sun, its one-step-away-from-reality perch -- is an incongruous place for someone like Helnwein. What he creates, regardless the medium -- watercolor, oil, photography, performance art, sculpture -- is a thorny psychological excursion into our sublimated self, our obscured corners and dark humors.