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The exhibition was conceived exclusively for the Caricature Museum Krems by Gottfried Helnwein. This is the first time that Bark’s body of work is presented in Austria.
Barks, who is one of the most eminent American artists of the 20th century, was a leading cartoonist of Walt Disney. He made Donald Duck a highly popular character and created duckdom with his unique style and original stories. He is considered the inventor of Uncle Scrooge, the Beagle Boys, Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose and other inhabitants of duckdom. His creative work had a lasting influence on artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Crumb and Manfred Deix. Film directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas also expressed their admiration for Barks.
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"It may be seen that the Viennese Helnwein is part of a tradition going back to the 18th century, to which Messerschmidt's grimacing sculptures are to belong, on which one of Freud's pupils wrote a long treatise. One sees, too, the common ground of these works with those of Arnulf Rainer or Nitsch, two other Viennese, who display their own bodies in the frame of reference of injury, pain, and death. And one sees how this fascination with body language goes back to the expressive gesture in the work of Egon Schiele."
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(Roland Recht, Chief Curator of Museums, Strasbourg, Musée d’Art Moderne, Strasbourg. From the Essay "The Self-Portais of Gottfried Helnwein: A World of Horror in Pictures.") ...

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"Ist es purer Zufall , daß der Österreicher Helnwein von dem Deutschen und Amerikaner ein Porträt entworfen hat? Zufall daß er Warhol als erschreckendes Schattengespenst fotografisch fixiert und Beauys gemalt hat?
Darüber hinaus das gemalte Porträt von Beuys wieder fotografiert hat , in den Händen von Arno Breker, Adolf Hitlers liebstem Bildhauer? Es spricht viel dafür , daß Helnwein der legitime Erbe von Beauys und Warhol ist."
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(Klaus Honnef, aus dem Essay "Gottfried Helnwein - Ein Konzeptkünstler vor der Jahrtausendwende." ...

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Listen. I tried very hard to think up both a concise and comprehensive bio about Gottfried Helnwein, the artist whose work is featured exclusively throughout our debut album, but it is virtually impossible to wrap my tiny arms around this guy's legacy in one email. And it'd be an insult to try. So I'll just say the following, and let your pending curiosty to explore his body of work speak the rest:
Mark my words, someday Helnwein will immortally reside in art history textbooks, right next to Van Gogh and Warhol. ...

Sehr geehrter Herr Gottfried Helnwein! Ich habe heute zum ersten mal ihre Werke gesehen! Bisher kann ich nicht daran glauben! Das ist unsagbar. Die Geschichte Ihres Lebens und Ihrer Arbeit sieht gross aus! Ja, ich muss sagen - ich bin getoetet. Ich aber immer wollte solchen Tod ueberleben. Nach diesem Tod kann ich die Wahrheit dieses Lebens fuehlen. Und jetzt meine Seele macht seinen Himmelfahrt.
Dank Ihrer Schaffung die groesste Wande fallen und kann man etwas neues und gutes, auch etwas besseres in unserem Leben eintragen! ...

This is the first art history that analyzes the use of Disney imagery by such artists as Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Warhol, Chagoya, Thiebaud, Helnwein, Boltanski, Dion, Pesanto, Ospina, Finley and many more. This book explores the impact of Disney, including artists’ economic and psychological motivations, on contemporary art. Disney refused permission for any images - their and artists. ...

gottfried helnwein is really amazing the shit out of me right now. I mean who else can manage to be grotesque and still classy and inspiring? i mean this is the first stranger/artist that really wants to make me sit down and pick his brains and fall in love with his ingenuity. everything about his art is incredible, right down to the titles.
i mean you really have to see this ...

...the last room was dedicated to contemporary artists with really good choices, there's even a Warhol Donald Duck canvas, and also a beautiful piece of Gottfried Helnwein which I happen to have been loving for years, "American Prayer". ...

I went to the Denver Art Museum today to see the newly opened expansion and in particular, the Radar collection. Very inspiring work, I have to say they are the most interesting and provocative pieces I've seen on display in Denver, ever. My favorite pieces were the works by Damien Hirst and the "Adoration of the Magi" by Gottfried Helnwein. ...

Gottfried Helnwein's Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) is a strange takeoff on a traditional New Testament theme in art. The work depicts a Madonnalike mother displaying her baby to attentive Nazi officers, Painted in hyperrealist grisaille with chiaroscuro effects, the work resembles an old documentary photograph made huge. The eerie, sinister overtones are unmistakable. Who is this mother? What do these officers want with her and her child? What kind of official paper might the officer on the left hold in his hand and what might be its result? Helnwein, characteristically, presents us with an ambiguous, haunting image and leaves us to wonder about its meaning...
With its huge size, hyperrealist style, and disturbing content, this unsettling work bestows a psychological anxiety accompanied by a strong magnetic pull. Confronting it, we tend to stare-entranced by both its beauty and its seductive, malevolent overtones... ...

I love looking at pictures of dead people, hence, in love with Gottfried Helnwein - the most talented photographer on earth...being able to capture and potrait the stories of the dead.And the fact that he's Marilyn Manson's best friend... ...

Adoration of the Magi (1496) by Filippino Lippi - Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi) 1996 by Gottfried Helnwein.
If you noticed the completion dates, you would be correct to count 500 years difference between them. Considering Helnwein body of work, I don't think his 1996 completion date is entirely coincidental. Is there a meaning behind the date? Probably, but you will have to ask him. On the other hand, there were quite a few "Adoration of Magi" paintings and I am just putting too much thought into the two I found the most interesting. But then again, art is very subjective and I have chosen to give meaning to these two works of art and hence find the 500 years relevant. ...

{i am a madwoman right now. soon enough i'll burn out/fade away.}
{& yes, this was a school assignment, so kill me.} ...

THE SYMBOLISM OF GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN ...

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He just crashed very high into my favorite painters ever list. So impressive, check out the rest of his work here.
::update:: Well maybe you're better off NOT to check it, at least not the stuff before 2005. The 2005 stuff I LOVE.
But the stuff before that, maybe a matter of taste, but I just discovered he also made really sick disturbing stuff that's just sick sick sick that I think is just so disturbing I don't even want to link it here (it's at his watercolors section "the intrusion", most specifically, well most of that page in general actually.). Why!? Whyyy? How can that be! ...

целую, князь ([info]activatemorlack) wrote, @ 2006-06-10 01:48:00 ...