"What is taking place is depressing," said Gottfried Helnwein as a retrospective of his work opened Wednesday at Vienna's Albertina gallery.
The provocative artist -- who has worked with Marilyn Manson and the Rolling Stones -- is known for his haunting photo-realistic paintings which depict violence, power and abuse inflicted on defenceless children.
"There is no limit to what people are capable of doing against someone who cannot defend themselves," said the 75-year-old, whose work has often evoked his homeland's dark Nazi past.
"When I see a child, in the current wars, wounded, crying or dying, it affects me."
"The question (of) whether it is an Israeli or a Palestinian, a Ukrainian or a Russian child becomes superfluous" since it is "a human being who certainly does not deserve this", he said.
The defenceless child is a "central figure" in Helnwein's works.
For the artist, the child is also a metaphor for both human vulnerability and strength that is "completely at the mercy of the fairness of adults".
His oeuvre also includes performances, photography and collaborations with controversial US shock rocker Manson -- who married Dita Von Teese in his Irish castle -- and German metal band Rammstein.
