Download PDF (1 MB)GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN
Helnwein was born in Vienna in 1948. 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.
He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation- and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media.
His early work consists mainly of hyper-realistic watercolors, depicting wounded children, as well as performances - often with children - in public spaces. Helnwein is a conceptual artist, concerned primarily with psychological and sociological anxiety, historical issues and political topics. As a result of this, his work is often considered provocative and controversial.
Viennese-born Helnwein is part of a tradition going back to the 18th century, to which Messerschmidt's grimacing sculptures belong. One sees, too, the common ground of his works with those of Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler, two other Viennese, who display their own bodies in the frame of reference of injury, pain, and death. One can also see this fascination for body language goes back to the expressive gesture in the work of Egon Schiele.
Helnwein's subject matter involves the complexities of the human condition. His disturbing yet provocative images of physically and emotionally wounded children have been seen as metaphors for larger global issues. He portrays the innocence of adolescence against the backdrop of historical events like the Holocaust to highlight the fragility of humanity in an unstable world.
THE CHILD
Helnwein's subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art, although it included self-portraits, is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Instead, Helnwein has created the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.
In 2004, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco organized the first one-person exhibition of Gottfried Helnwein at an American Museum: "The Child, works by Gottfried Helnwein" at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. The show was seen by almost 130,000 visitors and the San Francisco Chronicle quoted it the most important exhibition of a contemporary artist in 2004. Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic, wrote: "Helnwein's large format, photo-realist images of children of various demeanors boldly probed the subconscious. Innocence, sexuality, victimization and haunting self-possession surge and flicker in Helnwein's unnerving work".
Harry S.Parker III, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco explained what makes Helnwein's art significant: "For Helnwein, the child is the symbol of innocence, but also of innocence betrayed. In today's world, the malevolent forces of war, poverty, and sexual exploitation and the numbing, predatory influence of modern media assault the virtue of children. Robert Flynn Johnson, the curator in charge, has assembled a thought-provoking selection of Helnwein's works and provided an insightful essay on his art.
Helnwein's work concerning the child includes paintings, drawings, and photographs, and it ranges from subtle inscrutability to scenes of stark brutality. Of course, brutal scenes—witness The Massacre of the Innocents—have been important and regularly visited motifs in the history of art. What makes Helnwein's art significant is its ability to make us reflect emotionally and intellectually on the very expressive subjects he chooses. Many people feel that museums should be a refuge in which to experience quiet beauty divorced from the coarseness of the world. This notion sells short the purposes of art, the function of museums, and the intellectual curiosity of the public. The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein will inspire and enlighten many; it is also sure to upset some. It is not only the right but the responsibility of the museum to present art that deals with important and sometimes controversial topics in our society".
COMICS AND TRIVIAL ART
Another strong element in his work is comics. Helnwein has sensed the superiority of cartoon life over real life ever since he was a child. A magazine interview brought out an explanation of his obsession with Disney characters. Growing up in dreary, destructed post-war Vienna, the young Helnwein was surrounded by unsmiling people haunted by a recent past they could never speak about. What changed his life was the first German-language Donald Duck comic book that his father brought home one day. Opening the book felt like finally arriving in a world where he belonged:
"...a decent world where one could get flattened by steam-rollers and perforated by bullets without serious harm. A world in which the people still looked proper, with yellow beaks or black knobs instead of noses." –Helnwein.
In 2000, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presented Helnwein's 1995 painting Mouse I at the exhibition The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection.
Alicia Miller commented on Helnwein's work in Artweek:
"In The Darker Side of Playland, the endearing cuteness of beloved toys and cartoon characters turns menacing and monstrous. Much of the work has the quality of childhood nightmares. In those dreams, long before any adult understanding of the specific pains and evils that live holds, the familiar and comforting objects and images of a child's world are rent with something untoward. For children, not understanding what really to be afraid of, these dreams portend some pain and disturbance lurking into the landscape. Perhaps nothing in the exhibition exemplifies this better than Gottfried Helnwein's Mickey. His portrait of Disney's favorite mouse occupies an entire wall of the gallery; rendered from an oblique angle, his jaunty, ingenuous visage looks somehow sneaky and suspicious. His broad smile, encasing a row of gleaming teeth, seems more a snarl or leer. This is Mickey as Mr. Hyde, his hidden other self now disturbingly revealed. Helnwein's Mickey is painted in shades of gray, as if pictured on an old black-and-white TV set. We are meant to be transported to the flickering edges of our own childhood memories in a time imaginably more blameless, crime-less and guiltless. But Mickey's terrifying demeanor hints of things to come..."
Although Helnwein's work is rooted in the legacy of German Expressionism, he has absorbed elements of American pop culture. In the 70s he began to include cartoon characters in his paintings. In several interviews he claimed: "I learned more from Donald Duck than from all the schools that I have ever attended." Commenting on that aspect in Helnwein's work, Julia Pascal wrote in the New Statesman: "His early watercolor Peinlich (Embarrassing)- shows a typical little 1950s girl in a pink dress and carrying a comic book. Her innocent appeal is destroyed by the gash deforming her cheek and lips. It is as if Donald Duck had met Mengele."
Living between Los Angeles and Ireland, Helnwein met and photographed the Rolling Stones in London, and his portrait of John F Kennedy made the front cover of Time magazine on the 20th anniversary of the president's assassination. His Self-portrait as screaming bandaged man, blinded by forks (1982) became the cover of Scorpion's album Blackout. Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, William Burroughs and the German industrial metal band Rammstein posed for him; some of his art-works appeared in the cover-booklet of Michael Jackson's History album. Referring to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Helnwein created the book Some Facts about Myself, together with Marlene Dietrich. In 2003, he became friends with Marilyn Manson and began a collaboration with him on the multi-media art-project The Golden Age of Grotesque and on several experimental video-projects.
Examining his imagery from the 1970s to the present, one sees influences as diverse as Bosch, Goya, John Heartfield, Beuys and Mickey Mouse, all filtered through a postwar Viennese childhood.
Helnwein's oeuvre embraces total antipodes: The trivial alternates with visions of spiritual doom, the divine in the child contrasts with horror-images of child-abuse. But violence remains to be his basic theme, - the physical and the emotional suffering, inflicted by one human being unto another.
SELF-PORTRAITS
The self-portrait for the artist's blindfolded unbent head covered with blood occurs twice in Helnwein's 1986 triptych The Silent Glow of the Avant-garde. The middle panel shows an enlarged reproduction of Caspar David Friedrich's The sea of Ice, a depiction of a catastrophe of 1823/24 which is generally interpreted as a romantic allegory of the force of nature overpowering all human effort . Helnwein compared the "quietly theatrical" ecstatic attitude of his self-portrait with the heroic pose of the figure of the suffering figure of Sebastian and generalizes both to the stigma of the artist in the 20th century, making him a kind of savior-figure. In addition, its poetic title sets the viewer onto the right track. The visual montage of the modern artist as Man of Sorrows with Friedrich's landscape painting projects the dashed hopes of the romantic rebellion into the present, to the protest thinking of modernity, which has become introverted and masochistic, and its crossing of aesthetic boundaries. Is romanticism making a comeback? No. Actually, it had never left modernity. But its rebellion is confining and introverting itself in the "body metaphysics" of contemporary artists to its own flesh and blood. Thus, the comeback of romanticism leads for Helnwein, too, to stressing just one of its partial aspects, the stylizing in the form of a self-portrait of a protest introverted to martyrdom which historically was once linked in a contradictory way with social opposition, rebellion, and utopia.
REFERENCES TO HOLOCAUST
Mitchell Waxman wrote 2004, in The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles:
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. Kiefer is known for evocative and soulful images of barren German landscapes. But Kiefer and Helnwein's work are both informed by the personal experience of growing up in a post-war German speaking country... 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.
One of the most famous paintings of Helnwein's oeuvre is Epiphany I - Adoration of the Magi from 1996. It is part of a series of three paintings: Epiphany I, Epiphany II (Adoration of the Shepherds), Epiphany III (Presentation at the Temple), created between 1996 and 1998. In Epiphany I, SS officers surround a mother and child group. To judge by their looks and gestures, they appear to be interested in details such as head, face, back and genitals. The arrangement of the figures clearly relates to motive and iconography of the adoration of the three Magi, such as were common especially in the German, Italian and Dutch 15th century artworks. Julia Pascal wrote about this work in the New Statesman: "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, blonde Virgin. The Christ toddler, who stands on Mary's lap, stares defiantly out of the canvas." Helnwein's baby Jesus is often considered to represent Adolf Hitler.
WORKS FOR STAGE
Helnwein is also known for his stage and costume designs for theater, ballet and opera productions. Amongst them: Macbeth by William Shakespeare, (director, choreographer: Johann Kresnik) , Theater Heidelberg, 1988, Volksbühne Berlin, 1995; The Persecution and Murder of Jean Paul Marat, Performed by the Drama Group of the Hospice at Charenton, under Direction of Monsieur de Sade by Peter Weiss, (director: Johann Kresnik), Stuttgart National Theatre, 1989; Pasolini, Testament des Körpers, (director: Johann Kresnik), Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, 1996; Hamletmaschine by Heiner Müller, (director: Gert Hof), 47. Berliner Festwochen, Berlin 1997, Muffathalle, München, 1997; The Rake's Progress by Igor Stravinsky, (director: Jürgen Flimm), at Hamburg State Opera, 2001; Paradise and the Peri, oratorio by Robert Schumann, (director, choreographer: Gregor Seyffert & Compagnie Berlin), Robert-Schumann-Festival 2004, Tonhalle Düsseldorf; Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, (director: Maximilian Schell) at Los Angeles Opera, 2005,[23] and Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, 2006; Der Ring des Nibelungen, part I, Rheingold und Walküre, choreographic theatre after Richard Wagner, (director, choreographer: Johann Kresnik), Oper Bonn, 2006; Der Ring des Nibelungen, part II, Siegfried und Götterdämmerung, director, choreographer: Johann Kresnik), Oper Bonn, 2008.
PERSONAL LIFE
Helnwein was born in Vienna in 1948. He has four children with his wife Renate: Cyril, Mercedes, Ali Elvis and Wolfgang Amadeus, who are all artists.
Helnwein lived in Vienna till 1984, then he moved to Germany where he lived and worked till 1997. In 1997 he moved to Dublin, Ireland. In 1998 he bought castle Gurteen de La Poer in County Tipperary where he now lives with his family. Since 2001 he also has a studio in Los Angeles.
In 2004, Helnwein received Irish citizenship.
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, CA
2009
One man show, Friedman Benda Gallery, New York, NY
The Disasters of War II. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Central European House of Photography, Slovakia, Österreichisches Kulturforum, Bratislava
Gottfried Helnwein. The Murmur of the Innocents. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Fotografica Bogota 2009. Gottfried Helnwein: Installation in the city of Bogota. Museo de Arte Colonial, Bogota, Columbia
2008
Angels Sleeping. one-man show, Galerie, Rudolfinum, Prague
Prints. Greyfriars Municipial Art Gallery, Waterford City, Ireland
The Last Child. Waterford Fringe Festival, Waterford, Ireland
Ninth November Night. Installation. Downtown Philadelphia, PA
I Walk Alone. Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
2007
The Disasters of War. In memory of Francisco de Goya. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Angels Sleeping. Waterford Greyfriars Municipial Art Gallery, Waterford Fringe Festival, Waterford, Ireland
2006
Face it. Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz, Germany
Los Caprichos. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Galerie Brockstedt Berlin, Germany
2005
Beautiful Children. Galerie Ludwig Schloss Oberhausen and Wilhelm-Busch Museum, Hanover, Germany
2004
The Child - Works by Gottfried Helnwein. Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco Fine Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Irish and other Landscapes. Crawford Municipal Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland
2003
Paradise Burning (American Paintings III). Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002
Downtown. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2001
One-man show at the Butler House Gallery and Installation in the city of Kilkenny at the annual Arts Festival, Kilkenny, Ireland
2000
Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, England
1999
Apokalypse. Dominikanerkirche, Krems, Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Krems, Austria
1998
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku, Finland
Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997
Helnwein. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersberg, Russia
1996
Fine Arts Museum, Otaru, Japan
1995
Faces. Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
1994
Faces. Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada
Mittelrhein Museum, Haus Metternich, Koblenz, Germany
Städtischen Museum, Schleswig, Germany
1993
Faces. Traveling exhibition. Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany; Joseph Albers Museum, Quadrat Bottrop, Moderne Galerie, Bottrop, Germany
1992
Faces. Goethe Institut Centre culture allemand, Paris, France
Modernism Gallery in San Francisco, CA
Pfalzgalerie Museum, Kaiserslautern and Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland
Faces. Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany
1990
Helnwein: Ninth November Night. Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, France
1989
Zeichnungen und Arbeiten auf Papier. Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
1988
Helnwein: Ninth November Night. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Arbeiten auf Papier. Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany
1987
Der Untermensch - Gottfried Helnwein, Self-Portraits 1970- 1987. Museé d'Art Moderne, Strasbourg, Germany
Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren; Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
1985
Gottfried Helnwein - Arbeiten von 1970 – 1985. Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
1983
Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany
1981
Baumgartner Galleries, Washington D.C.
1980
Show with pen-and-ink drawings in the Albertina Museum,
Vienna, Austria
1979
Galleria de Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1977
Alt Wien, performance. Galerie Spectrum, Vienna, Austria
1975
Galerie Jasa Fine Art, Munich, Germany
1970
First one-man exhibition. Nachtgalerie im Atrium, Vienna, Austria
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009
Body and Language: Contemporary Photography from the Albertina Collection. Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
2008
Kunst nach 1970. Albertina Museum Vienna, Austria
Lichtspuren. Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz, Austria
Art Singapore 2008. Biennial for Contemporary Art. Suntec Singapore, Singapore
Bloody. Liebenweinturm, Burghausen, Germany
All's Fair in Art and War: Envisioning Conflict. 21C Museum, Louisville, KN
Out of Shape: Stylistic Distortions of the Human Form in Art from the Logan Collection. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2007
Rembrandt to Thiebaud: a Decade of Collecting Works on Paper. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
Photographic Bogota. International Biennial of Photography, Fotomuseo. The National Museum of Photography, Bogota, Colombia
Passion for Art - 35 Jahre Essl Museum, Essl Museum, Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Vienna, Austria
Concept: Photography- Dialogue & Attitudes. From the Traditional Forms of Photography to Auteur Photography. Ludwig Museum Budapest, Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary
Once upon a Time Walt Disney: Disney recycled by Contemporary Art. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada
Body Anxious. Cressman Center Gallery, The University of Louisville - Department of Fine Arts, Louisville, KN
Die Kunst der Verführung, von Schiele bis Warhol. Sammlung Infeld, Minoriten Kloster Tulln, Austria
Life as a Legend. The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
The Big Store. Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Where is Mummy? Städtische Galerie Theodor von Hörmann, Imst, Tirol, Austria
Memory XS. Eine Ausstellungsinstallation über Wolfgang Bauer, MAK Ausstellungshalle, Vienna, Austria
2006
Radar. The Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
Looking Now. 21c Museum, Louisville, KN
II était une fois Walt Disney. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France
Post Modern Portraiture from the Logan Collection. Logan Museum Vail, CO
FotoFest 2006, Houston. Helnwein - Diary of the Artist Against Violence. The Eleventh International Biennial of Photography and Photo-Related Art, Houston, TX
Mélancolie, Génie et Folie en Occident. Traveling exhibition. Galeries nationals du Grand Palais
2005
In Limbo. From the collection of Kent and Vicki Logan and the Denver Art Museum. The University of Denver's Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, Denver, CO
Arte Contemporá nee Austriaco y Pintura de la Posguerra: Colección Essl. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey México
The Other Mainstream. Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley Welthorn. The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Andy Warhol, Dale Chihuly, Vincent Van Gogh, Gottfried Helnwein and Diego Rivera. Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Superstars: Zum Prinzip Prominenz in der Kunst, von Warhol bis Madonna. Kunsthalle Wien and Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria
A Moment in Time. Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Bilder, die noch fehlten. Künstlerforum, Bonn. Eine Ausstellung des Deutschen Hygiene-Museums Dresden und der Deutschen Behindertenhilfe
Melancholie – Genie und Wahnsinn in der Kunst. Traveling exhibition. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2004
Gesichter machen - das Verschwinden des Portraits. Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, France
Meisterwerke der Medienkunst aus der ZKM Sammlung. Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
2003
Comic Release, Negotiating Identity for a new Generation. Regina Miller Gallery, Purnell Center of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon University; The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Meisterwerke der Fotografie: Face to Face. Portraitfotografie aus der Sammlung der DGBank, Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Germany
2002
In the Blink of an Eye - Photo Art (Augenblick – Fotokunst). Museum Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg/Vienna, Austria
Portrait Obscured. San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Heaven on Earth. Rubicon Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Seven. Lead White Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2001
Malerei - Austrian Artists Now. Albertina, Vienna and Museum der Bildenden Künste, Budapest, Hungary
Magic Vision. Arkansas Arts Center,Little Rock, AR
Berliner Mauer - Kunst für ein Europa im Aufbruch. Josef-Haubrich- Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany
2000
The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan
Collection. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Ghost in the Shell, Photography and the Human Soul, 1850. – 2000. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Cross Currents in Modern Art, Tribute to Peter Selz. Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York, NY
1999
Innovation/Imagination: 50 years of Polaroid Photography. Anselm Adams Center, San Francisco, CA
20 Years of Modernism. Modern Masters and Contemporary Art. Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
Götter, Helden und Idole. Ludwig Galerie, Schloss Oberhausen, Germany
A Delicate Balance. Kent Gallery, New York, NY
1996
Photographic Works from the Collection of the Museum. Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Opening exhibition of the Ludwig Museum, Beijing, China
1995
Versuche zu trauern. Ludwig Galerie Schloss, Oberhausen, Germany
It's Only Rock'n Roll - Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary Art. Phoenix Museum of Art, Arizona; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois; Nexus Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, Cleveland; Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
1994
Das Jahrzehnt der Malerei. Werke aus der Sammlung Schömer, Kunstverein, Augsburg, Germany
1993
48 Portraits are shown in the Künstlerportraits at the Ludwig Forum Aachen, Germany
Ansichten von Alexandra S. Deutsche Fototage, Frankfurt, Germany
1992
Group exhibition in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1990
Fotografie. Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, France
1989 Torino Fotografia '89 Biennale Internazionale exhibition with Clegg & Gutmann and David Hockney, Italy
1988
Selektion 4, Polaroid-Kunst der letzten 10 Jahre! Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; Photokina, Cologne, Germany
1984
1984 - Orwell und die Gegenwart. Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria
1983
Köpfe und Gesichter. Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
AWARDS
2009 Steiger Art Award
2007 Goose Egg Nugget Award of the Carl-Barks Society, in Recognition of
Significant Artistic Contributions to the Disney Duck Genre and the Carl Barks Legacy.
1984 Adolf-Grimme-Award for the Television documentary Helnwein
Honored by the Council of the City of Philadelphia for artistic
contributions in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive.
Appointed Honorable Ambassador of the state of Lower Austria by Governor Erwin Pröll
1974 Theodor-Körner-Preis
1971 Kardinal-König-Preis
1970 Maste-class award, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
COLLECTIONS
21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, San Francisco, CA
Albertina Museum, Graphische Sammlung, Vienna, Austria
Alinari National Museum of Photography, Florence, Italy
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montreal, Canada
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin, Germany
Essl Collection, Museum for Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria
Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, CA
Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany
Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland
Kunstsammlung der Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation Berlin, Germany
Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz, Austria
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren, Germany
Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Germany
Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
Ludwig Museum for International Art, Beijing, China
Ludwig Museum Schloss, Oberhausen, Germany
Messner Mountain Museum Firmian, Schloss Sigmundskron, Bozen, Italy
Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection, New York, NY
Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany
Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, France
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, Germany
National Museum of Photography, Fotomuseo, Bogota, Colombia
Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum Vienna
Polaroid Collection Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Thom Weisel Collection, San Francisco, CA
Vicki and Kent Logan Collection Denver
Wäinö Aaltonens Museum Turku, Finland
Wilhelm Busch Museum Hanover, Germany
ZKM, Museum für neue Kunst, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
SELECT LITERATURE
Artmann, H. C., William Burroughs, Heiner Müller and Peter Selz.Helnwein: Retrospective. St. Petersburg: The State Russian Museum, 1997.
_______, Wolfgang Bauer, Barbara Frischmuth, Botho Strauss and Karlheinz Roschitz. Helnwein. Vienna: Orac-Pietsch,1981.
Bauer, Wolfgang. Helnwein. Berlin: Nicolai Verlag, 1984.
Burroughs, William S., Reinhold Mißelbeck and Heiner Müller. Helnwein: Faces, Zurich: Edition Stemmle,1992.
Chikako, Imai, Evengia Petrova and Alexander Borovsky. Helnwein. Otaru, Japan: Fine Arts Museum, 1996.
Eimert, Dorothea, Hans Dichand and Kurt Eitelbach. Gottfried Helnwein. Vienna: Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz, Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren, Galerie Würthle, 1986.
Ennis, John. The Last Child. Waterford City: Intacta Print ltd., 2008.
Fiedler-Bender and Georg Dolezal. Helnwein. Switzerland: Kunstmuseum Thun, Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, 1992.
Froning, Hubertus. Gottfried Helnwein, works on paper 1969-1989. Germany: Folkwang Museum Essen, Kunsthalle Bremen, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, 1989.
Gorsen, Peter and Heiner Müller. Helnwein – der Untermensch, Self-Portraits 1970-1987. Heidelberg: Strasbourg Edition Braus,1988.
Helnwein, Gottfried. Text by Marlene Dietrich. Some Facts About Myself. New York: Edition Kathleen Madden, 1990.
_______ and Normal Mailer. Fourteen Photographs. New York: Edition Kathleen Madden,1989.
Ito, Tosharu. Helnwein, Self-Portraits 1970-1987. Tokyo: Dai Nippon Printing, 1989.
Johnson, Robert Flynn. Helnwein. London: Robert Sandelson Gallery, 2000.
_______ and Harry S. Parker. The Child, Works by Gottfried Helnwein. San Francisco: San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, 2004.
Keats, Jonathon and Simon Wiesenthal. Helnwein - Ninth November Night. Los Angeles: The Documentary Museum of Tolerance, 2003.
Koschatzky, Walter. Peter Gorsen, Klaus Hartung and H.C. Artman. Helnwein, works from 1970-1985. Vienna: Albertina Museum, 1983.
Mäckler, Andreas: Helnwein, Cologne: Benedikt Taschen,1992.
Mißelbeck, Reinhold, Simon Wiesenthal, and Heiner Müller.Helnwein – Ninth November Night. Germany: Ludwig Museum, Cologne, in collaboration with Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, 1988.
Moroney, Mic and Clare O'Donoghue. Helnwein. Ireland: Butler House Gallery, Kilkenny Arts Festival, 2001.
Murray, Peter. Irish and other Landscapes. Cork: The Crawford Municipal Gallery, 2004.
Nedoma, Petr. Gottfried Helnwein, Angels Sleeping. Prague: Galerie Rudolfinum, 2008.
Pachnicke, Peter and Gisela Vetter-Liebenow in collaboration with Gottfried Helnwein. Beautiful Children. Germany: Wilhelm Busch Museum in collaboration with Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen, 2005.
Rollig, Stella, Thomas Edlinger and Nava Semel. Face it: Works by Gottfried Helnwein. Linz, Austria: Lentos Museum of Modern Art, 2006.
Selz, Peter, Alexander Borovsky and Klaus Honnef. Helnwein. Russia: The State Russian Museum, 1997.
Zawrel, Peter. Gottfried Helnwein. Apokalypse. Austria: Niederösterreichisches Donaufestival, 1999.
_______. Kindskopf. Vienna: Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, 1991.
Helnwein im Gespräch mit Andreas Mäckler. Munich: Beck'sche Reihe,1992.
Helnwein 'Unheimliche Geschichten' Edgar Allan Poe. Drawings by Gottfried Helnwein. Germany: Kunstverlag Weingarten, 1979.
SELECT PRESS
1998
Jana, Reena. "Gottfried Helnwein." Flash Art International, Milan, January/February, 1998.
1997
Wallach, Amei. "The Contemporary Collector's Art." The New York Times Magazine, October 26, 1997.
Toshiharu, Ito. "An Interview with Gottfried Helnwein." Inter Communication, Spring No. 20, Tokyo, 1997.
Bredekamp, Horst and Ursula Frohne. "Kunst der Gegenwart." Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe. Munich: Prestel, 1997.
1996
Edelson, Loren. "Provocative emotions in your face." The Japan Times, November 9, 1996.
Koschewnikowa, Nadeschda. "Phenomenon Gottfried Helnwein." Njewskoje Wrema, February 3, 1996.
1994
Mäckler, Andreas. "Gottfried Helnwein." Graphis, No. 290, March – April, 1994.
1993
Gruber, Fritz. "Fotoausstellung in Bonn: Gottfried Helnwein Faces." Die Welt, March 29, 1993.
1992
Bauret, Gabriel. "Gottfried Helnwein." Camera International, No. 1, 1992.
Hacke, Axel. "Ein Mann der Gesichter durchschaut." Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 2, 1992.
1991
Mischke, Roland. "Helnwein." Max, No. 11, 1991.
1990
Pèclet, Jean-Claude. "Exposition: Gottfried Helnwein – Un cri, des crimes." L'Hebdo, No. 37, September 13, 1990.
1989
Toshiharu, Ito. "The Black Mirror. The World of Gottfried Helnwein." Mizue, No. 951, 1989.
1988
Scheuring, Christoph. "Mit harten Bandagen." Stern, No. 3, June 14, 1988.
1987
Gorsen, Peter. "Der Künstler als Märtyrer, Die suggestiven Bildmontagen Gottried Helnweins." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 18, 1987.
1983
Yoshinobu, Shimasaki. "Helnwein." Art Magazine, Bijutsu Techo, No. 8, 1983.
Rossi, Andrea. "Un tranquillo pittore di incubi." Bolaffi Arte, No. 154, 1983.
1975
Hyuga, Akiko. "Gottfried Helnwein." Mizue, No. 6, 1975.