Gottfried Helnwein Quotes

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. As an artist my strongest reaction to Helnwein’s work is that it challenges me to be better at what I do. There are very few people that achieve utter excellence in what they do. And I think that Gottfried Helnwein is certainly one of those people. - View Quote Details on Well, the world is a haunted house, and Helnwein at…
Opening my first Donald Duck comic book felt like seeing the daylight again for someone who had been trapped underground by a mine-disaster for many days. I squinted cautiously because my eyes hadn’t gotten used to the dazzlingly bright sun of Duckburg yet, and I greedily sucked the fresh breeze into my dusty lungs that came drifting over from Uncle Scrooge’s money bin. I was back home again, in a decent world where one could get flattened by steam-rollers and perforated by bullets without serious harm. A world in which people still looked proper, with yellow beaks or black knobs instead of noses. And it was here that I met the man who would forever change my life - Donald Duck. - View Quote Details on Opening my first Donald Duck comic book felt like seeing…
Gottfried Helnwein’s paintings evoke complex layers of history and psychology. Working with extraordinary technical sophistication, Helnwein seamlessly fuses traditional craftsmanship and contemporary conceptual investigations. - View Quote Details on Gottfried Helnwein’s paintings evoke complex layers of history and psychology…
Art is a weapon for me, with which I can strike back. - View Quote Details on Art is a weapon for me, with which I can…
In retrospect I would say from Donald Duck I have learned more about life than from all the schools I ever attended. - View Quote Details on In retrospect I would say from Donald Duck I have…
My question always was: why do people always cause so much pain to other people? Why does everybody look so hurt? When I started to paint I didn’t feel I had any message. My art was not an answer – it was a question. - View Quote Details on My question always was: why do people always cause so…
Helnwein is a very fine artist and one sick motherfucker. - View Quote Details on Helnwein is a very fine artist and one sick motherfucker.
Helnwein is one of the few exciting painters we have today. - View Quote Details on Helnwein is one of the few exciting painters we have…
Of all his paintings, the most disturbing is Epiphany (1996), for which he dips into our collective memory of Christianity’s most famous birth. This Austrian Catholic Nativity scene has no magi bearing gifts. Madonna and child are encircled by five respectful Waffen SS officers palpably in awe of the idealised, kitsch-blonde Virgin. The Christ toddler, who stands on Mary’s lap, stares defiantly out of the canvas. Helnwein’s baby Jesus is Adolf Hitler. - View Quote Details on Of all his paintings, the most disturbing is Epiphany (1996),…
Warhol is the pre-Helnwein. - View Quote Details on Warhol is the pre-Helnwein.
When I look at a work of Art I ask myself: does it inspire me, does it touch and move me, do I learn something from it, does it startle or amaze me - do I get excited, upset? That is the test any artwork has to pass: can it create an emotional impact on a human being even when he has no education or any information about art? I’ve always had a problem with art that you can only understand if you have a degree in art history, and I have a problem with theories. Most of them are bullshit anyway. Most critics and theorists have little respect for artists, and I think the importance of theory in art is totally overrated. Real art is self-evident. Real art is intense, enchanting, exciting and unsettling; it has a quality and magic that you cannot explain. Art is not logic, and if you want to experience it, your mind and rational thinking will be of little help. Art is something spiritual that you can only experience with your senses, your heart, your soul. - View Quote Details on When I look at a work of Art I ask…
If anyone from Austrian fine art of the last fifty years could be called a star, then there is only one person who meets all the criteria: Gottfried Helnwein. - View Quote Details on If anyone from Austrian fine art of the last fifty…
Gottfried Helnwein is my mentor — on any artistic thing I’ve done. His fight for expression and stance against oppression are reasons why I chose him as an artistic partner. An artist that doesn’t provoke will be invisible. Art that doesn’t cause strong emotions has no meaning. Helnwein has that internalized. - View Quote Details on Gottfried Helnwein is my mentor — on any artistic thing…
The most powerful images that deal with Nazism and Holocaust themes are by Anselm Kiefer and Helnwein, although, Kiefer’s work differs considerably from Helnwein’s in his concern with the effect of German aggression on the national psyche and the complexities of German cultural heritage. But Kiefer and Helnwein’s work are both informed by the personal experience of growing up in post-war German speaking countries… William Burroughs said that the American revolution begins in books and music, and political operatives implement the changes after the fact. To this maybe we can add art. And Helnwein’s art might have the capacity to instigate change by piercing the veil of political correctness to recapture the primitive gesture inherent in art. - View Quote Details on The most powerful images that deal with Nazism and Holocaust…
Imaginations and illusions are always so much more powerful and bigger than this mediocre and boring thing called reality. - View Quote Details on Imaginations and illusions are always so much more powerful and…