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Постои заблуда дека кое било човечко лице во кое било време, помалку или повеќе, изгледа исто, како лице на некоја статуа. Всушност, човечкото лице е менливо од миг до миг како екран на кој се отсликуваат слики, однатре и однадвор. Видов шест слики на иста тема за помалку од една минута - толку различни една од друга што тешко можеше да се препознае дека станува збор за иста личност.
Сликите и фотографиите на Готфрид Хелваин ја проблематизираат оваа заблуда, покажувајќи ја различноста на лицата, што секое лице е можно да ја направи. И со намера да ја "нападне" основната заблуда, тој мора да ја потенцира до претерување, и тоа преку искривување, со завои и метални инструменти што го вклештуваат лицето во невозможен облик.
Сликите на измачување и лудило ги има во изобилство. А сето тоа е резултат на исклучителното искуство и специфичната перцепција.
Како може еден автопортрет да се отслика со толку скулптурално смирено лице, кое всушност е облеано со сиот ужас што нè опкружува? Измачувањето, болеста, стравот и омразата што станаа секојдневица на она што Поуп го нарекува "банкет на животот". Овие ужаси секогаш говорат од лицата велејќи: "Ова е тоа што го мислам... и ова... и ова... и ова... Погледни подобро и ќе видиш". Не можеш да му покажеш никому нешто што веќе не видел, ниту пак можеш некому да му кажеш нешто што веќе не го знае.
Функцијата на уметникот е да ги привикува искуствата на изненадувачко препознавање: да му го покаже на гледачот она што веќе го знае ама не знае дека го знае. Хелваин е мајстор на вчудоневидувачкото препознавање. (Вилјам Бароуз)
Субверзивната сила, во светлото на културниот критицизам кој верува дека светот е на пат да ја заживее својата реалност на целосна манипулација и симулација, промовирани со сите сили од агендата на моќните медиуми, е задача што и` припаѓа на уметноста и што е од клучно значење. Таа го обликува човечкиот фактор. Но уметноста ќе с изврши својата задача единствено ако биде способна да ја скрши моќта на системите и ако успее да ја тргне магијата нивните агенди ги раководат луѓето.
Галерија на слики ...

Автор: D.Green  
Работа поступила 26/2/2001 и уже получила 274 баллов

Part three in the Hannibal Lecter Trilogy. Having escaped the asylum in "Silence of the Lambs," Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence, Italy. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor's, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling. ...

After the award ceremony, dinner at Da Carlo an Italian restaurant in Hamburg.
guests: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his wife Doris, Marius Müller Westernhagen and Romney, Gottfried Helnwein, Jürgen Flimm, Boris Becker, Michael Naumann, Norbert Haug. ...

"In Gottfried Helnweins porträthaftem Fotobild, das auf einem Gemälde basiert, betet ein kleiner Junge zu seinem Gott, und wer intensiv hinschaut, entdeckt plötzlich, dass die Hände des Jungen aus diletantisch gefertigten Protesen bestehen, Wie eine optische Mine ist der Schock im anheimelnden Kitschbild verborgen.
Helnwein ist ein Meister in der Entlarvung von verlogener Bildrethorik."
Gabriele Honnef-Harling
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Mit mehr als 170 000 Besuchern war die Ausstellung
"Der (im-)perfekte Mensch"
die bestbesuchte Sonderausstellung des Deutschen Hygienemuseums Dresden seit 1990.
Hygiene-Museum, Dresden - 20, 12. 2000 - 12. 8. 2001
Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin - 16. 3. - 2. 6. 2002
Kunsthalle, Villa Kobe, Halle, (Saale) - 28. 2. - 14. 4. 2002 ...

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2001

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exhibition-catalogue
Albertina, Wien - 10. 10. 2000 - 18. 10. 2000
Galerie Suppan, Wien - 23.10. - 25.11. 2000
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The Book Bukowski in Pictures is the first pictorial biography of cult writer, Charles Bukowski. The writer's extraordinary private and public life is illustrated with hundreds of photographs, most published for the first time. Extracts from Bukowski's poetry and prose are sprinkled throughout, together with drawings, cartoons, manuscripts, rare broadsides and personal letters. It features powerful new portraits of Bukowski by leading photographers such as Gottfried Helnwein and Tony Lane, former art director of Rolling Stone, as well as work by R.Crumb. All photographs have detailed captions by biographer Howard Sounes who has also written a powerful introductory text with new revelations gleaned from Bukowski's recently declassified FBI file. The end result is a fascinating life in pictures that will be essential for all Bukowski fans. ...

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(excerpt) Other works in the exhibition present the dark side of cartoon characters. The prevailing narrative structure of many cartoons is a cycle of one's character's unrelenting attacks on another. Yet the violence of these scenarios is subverted and humor achieved by the lack of any permanent injury to the victim and the gleeful nonchalance of the adversary even during the most aggressive assault. Static representations of wounded or menacing cartoon characters can expose the violence and eliminate the humorous punch line. In Gottfried Helnwein's painting Mickey (plate 24), Mickey Mouse's physical features, which usually contribute to his appeal become a thin veneer of looming attack. Blown up to a monster scale and rendered in an austere gray palette, Mickey's smile is deceptive. ...

In 'The Darker Side of Playland', the endearing cuteness of beloved toys and cartoon characters turns menacing and monstrous.
Much of the work has the quality of childhood nightmares. In those dreams, long before any adult understanding of the specific pains and evils that live holds, the familiar and comforting objects and images of a child's world are rent with something untoward.
For children, not understanding what really to be afraid of, these dreams portend some pain and disturbance lurking into the landscape.
Perhaps nothing in the exhibition exemplifies this better than Gottfried Helnwein's 'Mickey'.
His portrait of Disney's favotite mouse occupies an entire wall of the gallery; rendered from an oblique angle, his jaunty, ingenuous visage looks somehow sneaky and suspicious. His broad smile, encasing a row of gleaming teeth, seems more a snarl or leer.
This is Mickey as Mr. Hyde, his hidden other self now disturbingly revealed. Helnwein's Mickey is painted in shades of gray, as if pictured on an old black-and-white TV set. We are meant to be transported to the flickering edges of our own childhood memories in a time imaginably more blameless, crime-less and guiltless.
But Mickey's terrifying demeanor hints of things to come. ... ...

With ironic images of toys and cartoon figures, a number of contemporary painters, photographers and sculptors take incisive aim at the emotional underbelly of childhood in The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection, on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from September 1, 2000, through January 2, 2001. Explaining how these representations question deeply rooted social mores, this exhibition includes over 30 playful and wicked works-drawn from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan-by such contemporary artists as Gottfried Helnwein, David Levinthal, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Laurie Simmons and Hung Tung-lu. As Kent Logan states, "Of the themes in our collection this exhibition will explore what I like to call 'Children's Hour.'" ...

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The 24-hour city is already a reality for art-lover Lou Reed.
Reed was dining with a friend - the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein - on Sunday night, when he decided he wanted to see Helnwein's new show at the Robert Sandelson Gallery.
"I had just taken to my bed when I got a phone call from Gottfried", says Sandelson. "But I'm an old fan of Lou Reed so I went as I was and opened up at midnight." For nearly an hour, Sandelson stood in his nightwear and "yawned away while they analysed the pictures in detail". ...

Catalogue:
Helnwein
Robert Sandelson Gallery. London
Text by Robert Flynn Johnson,
Curator in Charge,
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco ...

This made perfect sense, I thought, considering the visuals attached to their recent album Sehnsucht: portraits of the band by Gottfried Helnwein, the brilliant German artist whose gauze-wrapped and fork-embellished self-portrait had been an album cover for the Scorpions -- you know the one I'm talking about?
Helnwein had photographed the Rammstein faces after mangling and compromising them with arcane medical apparatus; and here I was, with my back mangled and compromised, being photographed by arcane medical apparatus! How very synchronistic it all was!
Why, Helnwein was probably out there right now, conducting the band in their concerted hammerstrikes, perhaps even forming a mini mosh pit with my wife or discussing the finer points of arcane medical apparatus-based face-mangling with the MRI tech! Of course! And there were streamers, too! Multicolored streamers that descended from the antiseptic rafters and twisted and shimmered like silken snakes dancing in time to the music ... ...