Gottfried Helnwein has long been a recognized figure on the world art scene and more than ever his darkly visionary portrayals of pain, abuse and torture are proving to be true. Helnwein transfers these on the basis of an extensive pictorial knowledge that draws in particular on European Romanticism, but at the same time seamlessly transitions to the propaganda machinery of the Nazi dictatorship and the harmless duck cosmos of the famous Disney cartoonist Carl Barks. The trivial breaks the noble and knocks the supposedly adorable off its pedestal. Helnwein proves to be a clever strategist here, and a master of quoting and referencing unfamiliar points of view. Exhibition: Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany (11.04.-26.05.2021) / Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Italy (June - July 2021).

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