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Helnwein 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.

Another strong element in his work are comics. Helnwein has sensed the superiority of cartoon life over real life ever since he was a child. A biographical story, explains his obsession with Disney characters. Growing up in dreary, destructed post-war Vienna, the young boy was surrounded by unsmiling people haunted by a recent past they could never speak about. What changed his life was the first German-language Disney 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)

'Helnwein’s oeuvre embraces total antipodes: The trivial, for example, the Disney-culture, 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.'

Helnwein is also known for his stage and costume designs of theater, ballet and opera productions. Amongst them Hamburg State Opera, Volksbühne Berlin, Stuttgart National Theatre, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Los Angeles Opera and Israeli Opera Tel Aviv.

Epiphany I

1996
mixed media
210cm x 333cm

I Walk Alone

2003
mixed media
122 cm x 173 cm

Midnight Mickey

2001
mixed media
200cm x 300cm

Angel Sleeping V

1999
mixed media
273cm x 198.5cm

Righteous Men III

1999
mixed media
129cm x 150.5cm

Kiss IV

2005
mixed media
125.75cm x 182.2

Modern Sleep IV

2004
Photograph
200cm x 129cm