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Gottfried Helnwein

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Image:Beautiful_victim.jpg thumbnail|right|300px|Gottfried Helnwein, "Beautiful Victim", watercolor, 1974 '''Gottfried Helnwein''' (born October 8, 1948 in Vienna) is an Austria Austrian-Ireland Irish fine artist, photographer, and performance artist. :''It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition: to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows. Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition.'' - William Burroughs Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden KÃ¼nste, Wien). He was awarded the ''Master-class prize'' (Meisterschulpreis) of the University of Visual Art, Vienna, the Kardinal-KÃ¶nig prize and the Theodor-KÃ¶rner prize. His early work consists mainly of hyper-realistic watercolors, depicting wounded children, as well as performances - often with children - in public spaces. Helnwein is a conceptual artist, concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. As a result of this, his work is often considered provocative and controversial. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media. Helnwein is also known for his stage and costume designs of theater, ballet and opera productions. amongst them Staatsoper Hamburg, VolksbÃ¼hne Berlin and Los Angeles Opera. Among his better known works is a spoof of the famous Edward Hopper painting ''Nighhawks''.

Chronology
Image:epiphany1.jpg thumbnail|right|300px|Gottfried Helnwein, "Epiphany I (Adoration of the Magi)", mixed media on canvas, 1996 *1982 Helnwein was offered a chair by the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, which he declined. *1985 Rudolf Hausner, recommended Helnwein as his successor as professor of the master-class for painting at the University of Visual Art in Vienna, but Helnwein leaves Vienna and moves to Germany. *The film "Helnwein", produced by the German and Austrian National televisions, received the ''Adolf-Grimme prize'' for best television-documentary, the ''Eduard-Rhein prize'' and the ''Goldenen Kader award''. *Besides his realistic work, Helnwein also began to develop abstract, expressive styles of painting during this period. *1988, In remembrance of "Kristallnacht", the actual beginning of the Holocaust - 50 years earlier, Helnwein erected a 100 meter long installation in the city center of Cologne, between Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral.
Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work.
*1990 Helnwein began to focus on digital photography and computer-generated images which he often combines with classical oil-painting techniques.
*1994 Stage design, costumes, and make-up for Macbeth, a production of Hans Kresnik's Choreographic Theatre at VolksbÃ¼hne Berlin. The play was awarded the ''Theatre Prize of Berlin''. *1997 Moved to Ireland. *In the same year the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg St. Petersburg organizes a Helnwein retrospective and publishes a monograph of the artist. *2000 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and other American museums show Helnwein's work. *2001 Stage and costume design for the Hamburgische Staatsoper of Igor Stravinskyâ€™s opera "The Rake's Progress". *2002 He established a studio in Los Angeles, California Los Angeles. *Premiere of the Helnwein documentary ''Neunter November Nacht'' (Ninth November Night) at the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles. *Collaboration with Marilyn Manson on the multi-media project "The Golden Age of Grotesque" (Manson would later marry Dita von Teese at Helnwein's estate in Ireland). Also video and film projects with Sean Penn. *2004 "The Child" one-man show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco Fine Arts Museums. *Collaboration with Maximilian Schell for the Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalierâ€? at the Los Angeles Opera. *Helnwein receives the Irish citizenship. *2005 Helnwein retrospective at the National Art Museum in Beijing. Gottfried Helnwein currently lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles.

Quote
''I learned more from Donald Duck than from all the schools I ever attended.''
Gottfried Helnwein ''Helnwein is one of the few exciting painters we have today.''
Norman Mailer ''Well, the world is a haunted house, and Helnwein at times is our tour guide through it. In his work he is willing to take on the sadness, the irony, the ugliness and the beauty. But not all of Gottfried's work is on a canvas. A lot of it is the way he's approached life. And it doesn't take someone knowing him to know that. You take one look at the paintings and you say "this guy has been around." You can't sit in a closet - and create this. This level of work is earned.''
Sean Penn

Selected publications:
''' The Child, Works by Gottfried Helnwein'''
''One man exhibition 2004''
San Francisco Fine Arts Museums
Robert Flynn Johnson, Harry S. Parker
(ISBN 0-88401-112-7)
''' Helnwein, Monograph'''
''Gottfried Helnwein, Retrospective 1997''
State Russian Museum St. Petersburg
Alexander Borovsky, Curator for Contemporary Art
Klaus Honnef, Peter Selz, William Burroughs,
Heiner MÃ¼ller, H.C. Artmann.
(ISBN 3-930775-31-X)
Koenemann, 1999 (ISBN 3829014481) ''' Helnwein - Ninth November Night''', 2003
''The Documentary''
Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles
Johnathon Keats, Simon Wiesenthal

External links

- Official website
- www.helnwein.net
- www.helnwein-museum.com
- Helnwein's work for the stage
- Helnwein and the comic culture
- Honnef, University Heidelberg
- Helnwein's art referring to the Holocaust
- www.helnwein.org Category:1948 births Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Living people Helnwein, Gottfried Category:American artists Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Austrian painters Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Austrian photographers Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Contemporary artists Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Irish painters Helnwein, Gottfried Category:Irish performance artists Helnwein, Gottfried de:Gottfried Helnwein es:Gottfried Helnwein fr:Gottfried Helnwein nl:Gottfried Helnwein ja:ã‚´ãƒƒãƒˆãƒ•ãƒªãƒ¼ãƒˆãƒ»ãƒ˜ãƒ«ãƒ³ãƒ´ã‚¡ã‚¤ãƒ³ pl:Gottfried Helnwein zh:éƒ?æ–‡

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