Zitate von Helnwein

„Von Donald Duck habe ich mehr gelernt als in allen Schulen, in denen ich war.“
Gottfried Helnwein

* "I always feel so much more comfortable communicating with children than with grown-ups. Everything is far more simple and makes so much more sense – to me at least. In the world of a child anything is possible, there are no limits for imagination, and magic and miracles are a natural part of it.

Communicating with adults, on the other hand, sometimes seems to be so limited and incredibly complicated and above all boring. Unfortunately it’s them that rule the world and make the laws.

And all kids have to go through their demolition-program called education. Once they come out on the other side they are usually broken, their magic is gone and they are ready to be citizens, soldiers, clerks, politicians, prostitutes or other interesting things like that.

Funny enough it doesn’t always work. Some kids seem to be somewhat immune to that program, and one day I realized: that’s what almost all artist have in common;

– to a certain degree they all managed to remain (prevail, continue, endure) being a child.

I feel there is a strong bond between artists and children and all other sacred fools."

 * "my audience is the great love-affair of my life. I am obsessed with my public, and all I want to do with my art is: to touch them, to move them, to shake them and to hold them tight - and sometimes I want to kick their ass.

But I also listen to them and take their responses serious, because they and other artists are the only ones that ever taught me anything."

Gottfried Helnwein in an interview with Yuichi Konno for Yaso, Japan

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. Like the Blues or a poem of Rimbaud or Rembrandt's late self-portraits.

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.

Think of Bob Dylan, Mozart, Howling Wolf, Goya, Bukowski and Robert Crumb - do you need to know the theories that some busybodies might attach to their art in order to experience it?

Marcel Duchamp said: "The work of art is always based on the two poles of the onlooker and the maker, and the spark that comes from the bipolar action gives birth to something - like electricity."

* "Beauty and ugliness are very subjective. At different times and at different places, people have very different agreements on what these are.

These terms change. I couldn't care less about what a mediocre, middle-class society believes is beautiful or ugly. As an artist you have to make your own decisions. There is an independent system of values that is deeply seated within you as an artist - and when you betray that you loose everything. You know when that happens.

That's the fundamental difference between aesthetics and beauty. Aesthetics remain constant. The idea of beauty changes and is subject to fashion.

Like the difference between morals and ethics. Morals change from society to society, from time to time, but there is a basic concept of ethics that's universal for all human beings, and that doesn't change.

* "It bothers to see how kids grow up , how they are neglected and mistreated , how they get polluted with drugs, junk food, insane television and bad schools. It's terrible and dangerous, because they are our future.

Children are sacred - we need to protect, support and encourage them."

Zitate über Helnwein

* "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."

* 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.

* „Wie hält ein freundlicher Mensch wie Helnwein es aus, seine exzellente - Malerei zum Spiegel der Schrecken des Jahrhunderts zu machen? Oder hält er es einfach nicht aus, das nicht zu tun? Reflektiert sein Spiegel nur die Jahrhunderthaltung, LIEBER EIN SCHRECKEN OHNE ENDE ALS EIN ENDE MIT SCHRECKEN, die aus der Überbewertung des Todes kommt, Folge seiner Tabuierung durch Statistik.Perseus, der die Gorgo im Spiegel guillotiniert, und wenn der Kopf fällt, ist es der eigene. Wieviele Köpfe hat ein Mensch / Mann in unserem Zeitalter der Spiegel?“

    * Helnwein's subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead creates the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.

Robert Flynn Johnson, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

    * "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."

    * "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."    

    * „Wenn man in der österreichischen bildenden Kunst der letzten fünfzig Jahre jemanden als Star bezeichnen möchte, dann kommt, unter Berücksichtigung aller Kennzeichen, nur einer in Betracht: Gottfried Helnwein.“

      Stella Rollig, Direktorin des Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz   [58]

    * "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."

      Gary Garrels, Curator,Museum of Modern Art New York     

    * "Technische Meisterschaft und auch die Konsequenz einer packenden sozialkritischen Thematik offenbaren sich in dieser Ausstellung: Gewalt, Schmerz, Verletzung werden dargestellt. Den Körper ebenso wie die Psyche betreffend.

Helnwein dokumentiert hier im Museum einen künstlerischen Reifegrad, der eine weitere Steigerung kaum vorstellbar macht. Seine Eingriffe sind von einer schmerzhaften Unmittelbarkeit, deren emotionale Energie weit über die großen Bildformate hinaus den Raum und sein Publikum ergreift."

        Irene Judmayer, Kunstkritikerin, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten

    * Cleverly conceived conundrums."

         Jo-Ann Lewis, The Washington Post

    * "The paintings and pastels by Gottfried Helnwein appear to be photorealist. But unlike his sharp-focus colleagues, Helnwein's paintings carry powerful covert messages. He is a politically committed artist ... and in his case, you get more than what you see.

His work, in a multiplicity of media, manifests Nietzsche's assertion that "Authenticity of the creative artist can supply meaning to the despair and absurdity of existence."

       Peter Selz, Professor Emeritus, Department of Art History, University of California, Berkeley - Former Curater at the Musem of   Modern Art, New York

    * "There are weighty reasons for considering Helnwein the legitimate heir to Beuys and Warhol."

       Klaus Honnef, curator for Photography, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn   

    * "Gottfried Helnwein is a genius."

       Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California   

       comic-artist, writer, creator of Donald Duck and Scrooge Mc Duck          

    * "Gottfried is a genius, and possibly my favorite living artist"

    * " Helnwein is the next generation’s final ally, a skilled provocateur forcing us to confront the legacy we have bequeathed upon our children. Helnwein is our chronicler, our conscience, the antidote to our failing memories. He refuses to let us forget."