Gottfried Helnwein
| Gottfried Helnwein | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
8 October 1948 Vienna, Austria |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Academy of Fine Arts Vienna |
| Known for | painting, photography, installation art |
| Notable work | Ninth November Night (1988), Epiphany I (Adoration of the Magi) (1996), Disasters of War 3 (2007), The Murmur of the Innocents 14 (2010), I Walk Alone (2003), Peinlich (1971) |
| Movement | Hyperrealism, Installation art, Performance art |
Gottfried Helnwein (born 8 October 1948) is an Austrian-Irish visual artist. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media.
His work is concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. His subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, particularly the wounded child, scarred physically and emotionally from within. His works often reference taboo and controversial issues from recent history, especially the Nazi rule and the horror of the Holocaust. As a result, his work is often considered provocative and controversial.
Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien). He lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles.
Helnwein was born in Vienna short after World War II. His father Joseph Helnwein worked for the Austrian Post and Telegraphy administration (Österreichische Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung), and his mother Margarethe was a housewife.
Helnwein spent his childhood in a strict Roman Catholic upbringing. As a student he organized plays and art exhibitions at the Catholic Marian Society (Marianische Kongregation) of the Jesuit University Church in Vienna.
1965 he enrolled at the "Higher Federal Institution for Graphic Education and Experimentation" in Vienna (Höhere Bundes-Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, Wien). In the following years he started his first performances for small audiences where he cut his face and hands with razor blades and bandaged himself.
From 1969 to 1973 he studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien). He was awarded the Master-class prize (Meisterschulpreis) of the University of Visual Art, Vienna, the Kardinal-König prize and the Theodor-Körner prize.
In 1983 Helnwein met Andy Warhol in his factory in New York City, who posed for a series of photo-sessions.
Helnwein was offered a chair by the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg in 1982. When his demand to admit also children to study at the university was rejected, he declined.
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