Gottfried Helnwein is one of the most internationally famous Austrian artists. The Albertina is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the artist, who now lives in Los Angeles and Ireland, on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday it will be his largest exhibition thus far in the German-speaking world.
Helnwein's oeuvre is marked by confrontation with society and themes it regards as sensitive or taboo. Recurring motifs in his work include children and the wounded and abused body. Helnwein became famous internationally for, among other things, self-portraits with head bandaged and mouth wide open, reproduced on magazine covers and posters. [Klaus Albrecht Schröder]