Platz der Republik — 11011 Berlin

Helnwein catalogue for the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001 | 01.Aug.2001 — As I write, the Austrian artist, Gottfried Helnwein is wrestling excitedly with his first exhibition in the country which he recently made his home. The work spills out of Butler House, and up onto the festival streets of Kilkenny. These images are huge - in one case as big as six by nine metres, hoisted onto the facade of Kilkenny Castle.

The Irish Times | 01.Aug.2001 — While it is a painting, Epiphany is typical in its almost interchangeable use of photography and painting: both played their part in the achievement of the eventual, quasi-photographic image. He is a fine photographer, and his photographic portraits of Kilkenny children (enlarged to an enormous scale) form one strand of his festival exhibitions. The careful adaptation of existing imagery is another trait, and his references extend back through fine art history as well as history itself...

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001 — Clare O' Donoghue

Group show

The Kilkenny Arts Festival 2001

Nire Valley, Ireland

The Irish Times | 16.Feb.2000 — The controversial work of Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, now resident in Ireland, explores the lingering Austrian loyalty to Nazism. He speaks to Mic Moroney.

THE SUNDAY TIMES, Ireland (THE SUNDAY TIMES, culture, cover story) | 05.Aug.2001 — The disturbing Work of Helnwein comes to Ireland Helnwein is a headline artist who works in tight sound bites on a very large scale. The works brand themselves with proof of his technical know-how in various media and are endorsed by the coolest celebrities of his generation. So much for the cover-story, so what lies within? Headlines lure you into stories that make you want to cry, smile or help to change the world. But when they stop at your own skin, you can get a sinking feeling, a sense of the bigness and badness outside and the impossibility of change.

The Irish Times | 20.Aug.2001 — The point of the images is that they put it up to you as a viewer. Given that, one potential line of criticism is that they are designed solely to be provocative, like Marcus Harvey's portrait of Myra Hindley. But the abiding strength of Helnwein's work is that provocation is a means rather than an end; it is - however uncomfortable - morally grounded, if not necessarily in a way that will please all observers.

Chris Dooley (South East Correspondent) — The Irish Times

A controversial "Nazi" image by artist Gottfried Helnwein was daubed with red paint last week as Kilkenny Arts Festival entered its final days. Another Helnwein print, of a local girl, was set on fire and extensively damaged.

Workmen finish one of a series of prints measuring 9.3 metres by 6.2 metres by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein.The prints of Kilkenny children will hang on buildings in Kilkenny as parts of its arts festival beginning on August 10th.

RECORD numbers are expected to visit Kilkenny's art festival over the next week. — Organisers say attendance at shows and exhibitions on the first weekend indicates that up to 80,000 people will have visited by the time the 10-day event finishes next Sunday.

arcadia | 01.Aug.2001

Irish Independent | 01.Aug.2001 — Once an agitated spectator wondered how an apparently nice man could produce such disturbing imagery. Helnwein replied: "What bothers you is the pictures that get triggered in your own head." Perusing a catalogue of his work in preparation for a meeting is a journey through disgust, fear, fascination and admiration to finally - almost - attachment.

Chris Dooley — The Irish Times