Helnwein

by Gottfried Helnwein

Genres: Art

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 1993

Reviews

[Karlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most West Europeans and Americans, I imagine, I came to Helnwein via his brilliant sleeve art for the Scorpions Blackout album, 1982. I was surprised then by the power of his social and cultural commentary through his full body of work. Body horror, pop culture, nazism all coalesce into a challenging portfolio not for the easily disturbed. Is he a great artist? In some ways yes, technically capable and with interesting themes you expect to get more from this Taschen collection, but the accompanying text is short and quite light. I don’t need anymore however as the work speaks for itself. I just prefer other artists (Wyeth, Pollock, Ernst and Tanguy for example; whereas Gottfried has more in common with post Pop Art commentators).

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually my husband's book and I wonder why he has it. Quite interesting - I'd never seen this fellow's work before, at least not that I was aware, although the text treats it as if it were ubiquitous. Pop art with shock factor - not my thing but worth a look for its reflection on the culture of the 70s-80s.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is brilliant but really disturbed. He should have been stopped before he made most of these paintings. If my friends the psychological profilers ever look at this book they'll be dropping me like a hot autopsy.