As a rule, when politicians say that something must be done “for the children,” it’s an excellent time both to make sure your wallet is secured and a helpful reminder that the chief interest of any politician is obtaining and holding power. The documentary “Gottfried Helnwein and the Dreaming Child” extends these principles to the art world.
In his Bono shades and skull-emblazoned Axl Rose do-rag, Helnwein would make a comical figure were it not for his appalling art — mainly photo-realistic images of tortured, bloodied little girls. Helnwein’s defense? Hey, I’m speaking up for the children! Also: I’m reminding everyone about the Nazis! Thanks, Gottfried, but exploitation does not equal art.
This infomercial for Helnwein’s work as designer for an Israeli opera called “The Child Dreams” doesn’t tell us a lot about how opera comes together, but it is accidentally revealing about its subject. In one particularly fatuous moment, he claims that people who are not bothered by the Holocaust are “shocked” by his work. Spinal Tap never said anything so ridiculous. The 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht was, for Helnwein, a convenient publicity tie-in for one of his shows.
The astute eye will notice everything about Helnwein illustrates the triumph of “branding” in the art world: his goofy characteristic “look” and his constant recycling of the same idea create a notion of Helnweinism in the shallow and trend-fixated art world. Such shtick drives up the value of his work, no matter how bereft of content.