Video: "Master of Unexpected Recognition": the work of the cult Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Gottfried Helnwein - one of the most popular contemporary artists, who over the past four decades has never ceased to amaze the world not only with paintings, but also with photographs, sculptures, all kinds of installations, extraordinary performances and even the creation of theatrical scenery. The cult American writer William Burroughs called him "the master of unexpected recognition", hinting that in the works of Helnwein, every viewer finds something close in spirit. I wonder what in his works will seem familiar to you?
Gottfried Helnwein was educated at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, but not only the Austrians, but also the Irish consider him “his own” (he moved to Ireland in 1997). His early works are often hyper-realistic watercolors showing injured children. The artist is primarily interested in topics related to social, political and historical problems. He pays special attention to the formation of personality, realizing how destructive any negative shocks can be for the child's psyche. Many of the works of Gottfried Helnwein are frankly provocative, among his canvases there is, perhaps, not a single one that could be looked at with indifference.
A separate topic is the love of comics. “I learned more from Donald Duck than in all the schools I’ve ever attended,” is how the artist himself speaks of his favorite cartoon character. Amazingly, Donald in the paintings can easily be seen in the company of ordinary people, which, combined with a realistic style, creates a strange surrealistic perception of the depicted reality.
In an interview, Gottfried shared his memories of his bleak childhood in post-war Vienna, where the people around him, who survived the war, did not want to remember and talk about their past. A real "window" to the world of joy and fun became for him a German-language comic strip about a Disney character that his father once brought to the boy. Young Gottfried remembered this world for the fact that any misadventures could not seriously harm the health of the characters, and he really believed that ordinary happy people live on the pages of the comic, who have only one difference - long yellow beaks instead of a nose.
Today Gottfried Helnwein has gained worldwide fame, his works are exhibited in the best museums in the world and receive the most prestigious awards. The most famous of these are the Master Class Prize (Meisterschulpreis) of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the Cardinal Koenig Prize and the Theodor Körner Prize. More drawings by Gottfried Helnwein can be seen on his personal website.
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