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Spring Auction

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN* (born 1948 in Vienna)
Mickey Mouse
offset lithography/paper, 47,7 x 70 cm
signed G. Helnw, numbered 16/150

ESTIMATE € 2000 - 3000
STARTING PRICE € 2000

Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish artist, who is formerly known for his hyperrealistic and large format works of wounded children. From 1965 to 1969, he attended the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. From 1969 to 1973, he studied painting in the master class of Professor Rudolf Hausner at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. During this time he worked with a wide variety of techniques and stylistic devices. In addition to drawing, watercolor, acrylic and oil painting and various mixed media, photography became an essential medium for him, often in connection with performance work. His first exhibitions in Vienna from 1970 repeatedly triggered protests, exhibitions were closed and works were confiscated by the police. He became best known for his hyper-realistic images of wounded and bandaged children. Throughout his work he deals with the themes of pain, injury and violence and also touches on taboo and irritating topics in recent history. The topic of National Socialism in particular is dealt with in his works, The focus of his work is, above all, the depiction of the child. In 1982, “Blackout”, an album by the Hanoverian rock band Scorpions, was released with a self-portrait of Helnwein on the cover. In 1985, the year of his first Albertina exhibition, Professor Rudolf Hausner suggested him as his successor to head the master class for painting. However, the majority of the professoriate rejected this proposal. At the end of 1985, Helnwein and his family moved to Germany, where he lived and worked in Burgbrohl Castle in the Eifel from 1985 to 1997. At the end of the 1980s he began to devote himself to installations in public spaces. In 1997 he moved to Ireland with his family and purchased the country house Castle Gurteen de la Poer, County Waterford. In 2002, Helnwein set up a studio in Los Angeles. Since then he has lived and worked alternately in Ireland and Los Angeles. In 2004 he received Irish citizenship.

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The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographs 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.

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