Gottfried Helnwein | IRELAND | Austria Spezial | THE CHILD: WORKS BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEINEpiphany I (Adoration of the Magi)

Austrian-born and educated and now living Los Angeles, Helnwein employs a hyperrealist manner that will remind Americans of Gerhard Richter but, if anything, works to opposite effect. Rather than re-confirm post-modernist cynicism, Helnwein rekindles post-war anguish. This selection, going back more than three decades, emphasizes his preoccupation with the image of the child, from early Nitsch- and Schwarzkogler-influenced photo-actions (with the requisite bandages) to recent large portrait-like heads and depictions of Christ-child-like babes attracting odd, menacing crowds. A perverse streak runs through the images, but it’s not pederasty: tinged with surrealism, it’s an enduring shame and anger at the Nazi past – and the artist’s suspicion that Naziism hasn’t been eradicated.


		01. Сентябрь 2004 AC (ArtCircles) is a Public Service Project for the Documentation of All Art Peter Frank THE CHILD: WORKS BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN curated by Robert Flynn Johnson, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, July 31-Nov. 28 Austrian-born and educated and now living Los Angeles, Helnwein employs a hyperrealist manner that will remind Americans of Gerhard Richter but, if anything, works to opposite effect. Rather than re-confirm post-modernist cynicism, Helnwein rekindles post-war anguish. This selection, going back more than three decades, emphasizes his preoccupation with the image of the child, from early Nitsch- and Schwarzkogler-influenced photo-actions (with the requisite bandages) to recent large portrait-like heads and depictions of Christ-child-like babes attracting odd, menacing crowds. A perverse streak runs through the images, but it’s not pederasty: tinged with surrealism, it’s an enduring shame and anger at the Nazi past – and the artist’s suspicion that Naziism hasn’t been eradicated.


		AC (ArtCircles) is a Public Service Project for the Documentation of All Art Summer-Fall 2004, 1 Holly Crawford, Founder and Editor Peter Frank, Editor www.artcircles.org