Using the metaphor of youthful innocence as a means to reveal the age-old violence that continues to permeate our times, Gottfried Helnwein produces impeccable realist paintings that send shivers down the spine. Casting children in the roles of both perpetrators and victims of war and terror, the LA-based artist strikes a sensitive nerve with his haunting visual narratives. Young girls disturbingly sport Nazi uniforms and wield guns in the direction of dolls, while simultaneously being bandaged at the head and lying in pools of blood. Likewise, Mickey Mouse becomes a sinister symbol of aggression, while a male child destined to become a Hitler youth gets doted on by SS officers.
Drawn from diverse sources, including old movies and current events, as well as Helnwein’s own childhood memories of growing up in post-WWII Austria, these exquisitely painted canvases, which are currently on view at Friedman Benda in New York, capture the image of a world gone bad.
Gottfried Helnwein: I was a Child remains at Friedman Benda through October 23.
Click through below for a gallery of images.
Gottfried Helnwein, The Murmur of the Innocents 17, 2010. Oil & acrylic on canvas, 70 3/4 x 101 inches, Courtesy Friedman Benda, New York
Comments (24)
This is totally inappropriate and disgusting. What a poor excuse for Art. Who will this inspire? What about this is beautiful?
Tasteless, sensationalist, heartless crap.
I think this is beautiful. A real description of the loss of innocence in our culture, the timeless beauty of youth. Really inspiring.
Art is not about being beautiful and needs no excuses. Maybe Helnwein read the body count out of the paper and now it’s written all over his face/work, Mr. BrightEyes.
ridiculous, un original, and tasteless, tacky, old hat, cliched….think that about covers it – Flavorwire get some curatorial balls! Nazi uniforms … really how… ‘nightporter’…boarderline child erotica… YUK.
Since one can’t evoke sexuality anymore — you can see how politically incorrect it is from pixie hale’s comment — death is clearly the way to go. I personally find the work insipid, but not ‘totally inappropriate’ (nor disgusting). Yes, it is “a real description” of a loss in our culture (SarahMay), but not of innocence. (You have to be innocent first in order to lose it.) Rather, it is a description of a loss of meaning. Hold up images of children to death and of course they’re going to look beautiful…but never timeless.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”…or ways of interpreting something I might add. Here we are discussing the censorship debate again.
Sigh.
The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. ~Henry Steele Commager
A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad. ~Albert Camus
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsky
Reminds me of “Alice in Wonderland” and the truth behind Lewis Carroll. I find this disturbing, yes, beautiful, yes (abstractly), and what good art is for: eliciting a murmur of any kind from the soul of the witness.
peg(O)
Love it. Negative Utopia. It challenges the mind and the heart. This is true art.
How appropriate for the Halloween season. Trot out those symbols of univeral evil and kitch. Yes! The Nazis. What balls on this artist to actually use SS uniforms and pose children, etc. What pandering. This artist, like most, is looking to establish a reputation on which to build a career. His tried and true method: make something repellant. Please leave the Nazis alone.
FINALLY!!! Some real talent here! You may or may not agree with the subject matter, but what a refreshing change from all the low brow garbage-as-art that is so popular now. Thank you Flavorwire!
Yes, he is an artist with such incredible talent but it is incomprehensible why he would want to use this dexterity to portray a subject matter which is so horrific and depressing .
Didactic & jejune.
I have a child so these images hit me close to the heart. Made me think too of the culture we live in and how
violence is more than likely a learned action one that is held up as a model. Yes it affected both my heart and mind and I think that is what art is about. Gottfreid keep up the good work you are on to something.
exactly otto117 – it’s just broad obvious clumsy work by a good technician whio is trying to get some attention – bad taste needs some thought behind it to be meaningful – the artist needs a director to actually give him some critical faculties. Think of a good idea first before you do this hackneyed work or at least copy some one with an actual idea.
Helnwein has been making disturbing hyperrealistic paintings of injured children for decades – he started in the 70s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Helnwein If anything, the more recent images you are thinking about are derived from work he’s been doing for years. He’s also an Austrian with a personal history relevant to Naziism – this is genuine, though gruesome stuff.
Fact checks are great, like learning about how Nazi’s judged and held distorted beliefs about other people and their intentions, beliefs, practices, etc. Yep.
I don’t know why some of you bother commenting, let alone looking at all the pictures. If art goes over your head then so be it. You don’t need to prove to everyone how ignorant you are without a shadow of a doubt. Art is not meant to pander to you, nor is it often meant to be easy to look at. This talent is wasted on American minds.
Anyone who would like to be academically critical of this or any other artwork should at least have the decency to research the artist a little.
I agree wholeheartedly with MrBurnst. Art does not need to be about beauty one hundred percent of the time.
pixie hale: “boarderline child erotica”?? If you interpret these as erotic that’s your own private issue. At least spell borderline correctly.
does not inspire me at all… sorry
however! extraordinary high level paintwork,
cannot not be matched very easy …
“I have a child so these images …. ” oh please not the old I feel more about these images because I have a child statement..booring..ahh SS jacket, i thought it a balmain jacket..silly moi.. I found some quite beautiful, others thoughtful, some disturbing and some left me a bit numb.. incredible photrealistic painitings though.. the evil mickey stays with me.. the Nazi gathering around the Virgin Mary and little baby terrific commentary.. wouldn’t want to live in a world without them though!
Powerful!!! Exactly what is currently going on in society. The imagery & the energy that is taking away the innocence from our youth right now.
Agree with yawning: Didactic & jejune, as well as brighteyes9: Tasteless, sensationalist, heartless crap.
anyone who doesn’t appreciate this has no idea what art is. all you posers, get out of here. you’re not fooling anyone. go back to your god damn graphic designs and photoshop and leave the art appreciation to people who know what it is.
I personally love anything from Gottfried. I went to see his display at the Crocker Museum the year before last and it was amazing. His work can be perceived many different ways. His work can be hinting towards our loss of culture, innocense, or anything really. People will never know what an artist wants to convey, because most of the time even he/she doesn’t know. I personally think that no one has the right to say wether his work is true art or not because there is no such think as true art. Art is what we want it to be regardless of what the artist wants to convey, and so there is no such thing as real art or fake art. Art is our past, present, and future, embrace it in all forms and you can never go wrong. Back to the matter at hand; Gottfried has talent, he has drive, and he knows how to use it.
Post a new comment