"Helnwein's meticulous Irish landscapes, which are the cornerstone of this Crawford show, are unashamedly aesthetic: gorgeous confections of pure, delicious spectacle. The typically epic but not inhuman scale imitates the subject matter. The tonal realism will make people go "Wow, are they paintings?" - thanks to the photorealist finish which seems free of the foibles of the human hand. Helnwein works with very small brushes - highlighting and subtly magnifying here, muting colours or creating shadows there; pushing some paintings towards momentary sleights of impressionism; and others towards seamless, burnished hyperreality. The bird's eye view suggests a kind of superhuman vision which can simultaneously take in the entire view with breath-taking clarity, like some bionic eagle."
Mic Moroney, from the essay "Out of the Apocalypse into the Sublime - bursting into Irish Landscape: Citizen Helnwein" ...

July – August 2004 ...

* Helnwein's Epiphany I has been up on our site for years now. For a while I used it as wallpaper on my desktop. Perhaps that explains how the first hypertext poem came to be one about the Virgin. But as I struggled with updating the site, I checked all my old resources and came across materials that explain Helnwein's commitments and meanings far better than I could alone. ...

Dear Gottfried,
Thank you for giving us the pleasure of visiting your home
to which my uncle and my father motored over for social events in the 1930s...
Senator Martin Mansergh, 4 May 2004 ...

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"When I am reincarnated I want to come back to this castle and relive tonight!"
Nora Owen,
former Minister for Justice of Ireland ...

The Castle is spectacular from the outside and on the inside. I confidently drove up the 'private' lane knowing I had my 'directions' sheet folded in my pocket. When I got to the door, it was closed and I could see through the windows people dinning under big candles. There were two large German Shepherds in the garden. I began to wonder if I was doing the smart thing. As I approached the door it opened and I recognized the Helnwein's Austrian personal assistant whom I remembered from my previous visit to the Castle a couple of years ago. ...

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Continuing the theme of documenting the landscape, internationally renowned artist Goffried Helnwein will exhibit a number of large-scale photo-realist canvases depicting Irish landscapes. Helnwein lives for much of the year in Co. Tipperary and his paintings illustrate the drama and the beauty of the countryside as well as revealing the changing landscape of Ireland.
Helnwein, (born in Vienna in 1948), is a formidable artist and his work has often been proved controversial, because they function as moral probes. He continually reveals emotive issues within his work practice. ...

Morrison:
... On the other hand there is Matisse. He aspired to a peaceful painting that brings comfort. What was the title of that painting? La Luxe, Calm et La Volupte! The cathartic aspect of painting is not really the image but the way it’s painted, the sensation of the color.
Poor Vincent Van Gogh! - He imagined his paintings bringing warmth and hope to sailors out on a stormy sea, a sense of some kind of safe harbor. He aspired to a kind of religious art. He had in mind a triptych. The side panels would be his sunflowers, and the center panel was a woman, La Berceuse, I think she was called—this very big-breasted maternal woman. A kind of a Madonna, or an earth goddess, in the middle between the sunflowers.
Last year, I was in New York and there was a Leonardo da Vinci show at the Met, which was just utterly fascinating. Da Vinci reminds me of you, Gottfried, in the sense that he presents a seamless apparition. You almost would have had to have a magnifying glass to appreciate some of these things. There was a grove of trees about postage stamp size, but when you look into it, there it is. It’s just chalk and paper - that kind of red chalk that he used. But, there it is, magically presenting itself to you.
Coming out of the da Vinci show, I found myself just wandering about, almost dazed.
Then I found myself in this room with all these Poussins. My God! It felt like I was in heaven or something. Because it’s a state of feeling. I think in the course of time, that feeling intensifies, and the paintings have an evermore magical presence. There is an increasing sense of emotional belonging, or something like that – in art.
*
Helnwein:
Great art triggers something – like a long forgotten memory. You have the feeling there is something so deeply familiar...
When I saw Rembrandt's "Night Watch" in the Rijchsmuseum in Amsterdam long ago, I was in a state of shock. I was completely overwhelmed. I had tears in my eyes. I was so moved, and I didn’t know why. I could not explain it.
A long time ago some guys commissioned Rembrandt to paint them, photography didn’t exist yet so they had to get somebody to paint them – and why would I, hundreds of years later, care about these mediocre guys in stupid military costumes?
Why would I be so touched and moved? It doesn’t make sense. I have no explanation, there is no logic reason.
The depicted subject obviously doesn’t really matter. It’s probably just an excuse to paint. ...

Ich spüre ein überwältigend emotionales Gefühl, wenn ich im Flugzeug sitze und schaue herunter auf diese kleine grüne Insel Irland. Ich werde so sentimental dass ich Tränen in den Augen habe.
Obwohl ich dort nicht geboren bin, habe ich das Gefühl, ich gehöre zu diesen vielen Iren, die dort seit Jahrhunderten um ihre ihre karge Existenz kämpfen, singen, dichten, saufen und ständig auswandern mussten. Aus irgendeinem Grunde fühle ich mich als Teil dieser eigenartigen und traurigen Geschichte. ...

Gottfried Helnwein, Sarah Corner, Peter Curling, Eoin De Leastar, Des Dillon, Glenn Fitzgerald, Brian Harte, Ella Kavanagh, John Keating, Jessica Roth, Dorin Saurus ...

Continuing the theme of documenting the landscape, internationally renowned artist Gottfried Helnwein (born Vienna 1948) will exhibit a number of large scale photorealist canvases depicting Irish and Californian landscapes. The artist divides his time between Co. Tipperary and Los Angeles, his paintings drawing upon the sublimity/drama of the two contrasting environments. Niemela: until June 26; Helnwein: 3 July–4 September ...

Most Popular:
* Haring, Keith (1958-1990)@
* Hine, Lewis Wickes (1874-1940)@
* Helnwein, Gottfried (b. 1948)@
* Hirschfeld, Al (1903-2003)@
* Hundertwasser, Friedensreich (1928-2000)@
* Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)@
* Hockney, David@
* Hockney, David (b. 1937)@
* Hunter, Dard (William Joseph) (1883-1966)@
* Hughes, Arthur (1832-1915)@ ...

it would be nice to see ligitimate european art magazines acknowledge this work...i agree Helnwein has a language which is accessible to current youth culture - which is refreshing because involving the audience intellectually is something contemporary art neglects very often...not only that, they usually address matters which are of no interest to anyone but themselves ...

After rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names of contemporary art as a child, Cyril Helnwein now lives quietly in Ireland, surrounded by a circle of loyal friends -famous or not- close to whom he seems to have foud some kind of serenity. Glitters of fame ? He leaves them to others - who have more time to spend in official receptions and society dinners. Quick interview with a shadow artist who keeps trying to bring our world to light... ...

IRISH AND OTHER LANDSCAPES ...

SINCERE sympathy is extended to the Helnwein and O'Shea families on the sad bereavement last the week of Alva Helnwein (nee O'Shea) in Eindhoven, Holland, after a short illness.
Prayers go out to friends and family of Alva Helnwein (nee O'Shea), who has passed away. ...

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