Gottfried Helnwein

[Litharge]

His work might appeal to some here:

http://www.helnwein.com/

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I think this used to be discussed in Noisefanatics PE board "art" topic. He is very good, but to find very good book of his, is much more challenging. At least from my own experience. Of course this is valid for a lot of artists, that there simply isn't perfect "anthology" type of books.
"FACE IT" book from 2006 is very good.  Text in German and English. 224 pp. With 197 ills. (156 col. ). 33 x 25 cm.; Christian Brandstatter Verlag. Hardcover... and then you check out for example Amazon, and price goes from 135$ to 745$. I mean, he is good, but...   Luckily I bought the book when it was new & cheap.
This guy is probably known for most making photography/cover art for fames such as Marilyn Manson and german kult band Scorpions! So you have most likely seen his work, even if not knowing who did it.
This sample shows one example of magnitude of his exhibitions, but there are bigger. He uses children in violent or obscured scenes as commentary for German past.
He repeats a lot of same ideas and even same "scene" with various technics and variations. Bandages over the face and head. In his self portraits or for the kids.

"FACE IT" appears to be good, since it seems - at least to my knowledge - gather together pretty good selection of many of his famous works. From painting, drawing, photography, performance (?) and exhibition. Collection all sorts of themes. I wouldn't be into spending big bucks to get some of his book online, just to find out it has merely selection of gloomy child faces, which original intention was to be presented in extremely big size in some location, where also surrounding probably contributes to overall feeling. And as pages of book, perhaps not being enough.

[RG]

http://www.amazon.com/Helnwein-English-German-Klaus-Honnef/dp/3829014481/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

I have this one and it's excellent. 400+ pages and packed with imagery (fair amount of english/german text too). There's a bit of the big sad child's face displayed in a church type stuff like mentioned, but it's mostly towards the back. The rest of the book is filled with b&w and color photos, mostly self-portraits and stuff with children. Some paintings and really amazing colored pencil drawings too. The very last few pages show him working on these gigantic photorealistic landscapes and cityscapes. (i think he might be painting on top of printed photos). The guy is extremely talented and quite prolific. Haven't kept up with him in recent years, but last time I checked it seemed he was mostly doing just photography and not doing anything terribly exciting. This book covers the period of his life when he was very creative and very busy, working in all different kinds of media.

He's done stuff for Rammstein as well. The photography for Sehnsucht is the most known. You'll see a lot of stuff similar to that with the bizarre headgear in his 80s self-portraits. A lot of the self-portrait works are also reminiscent and clearly influenced by the prior photo works of Viennese Actionists like Günter Brus and Rudolf Schwarzkogler.

[ARKHE]

The Scorpions cover, is it the original Virgin Killer cover?

[FreakAnimalFinland]

The Scorpions cover, is it the original Virgin Killer cover?

No..
Blackout cover for example. He has lots of this type of self portraits. Some more "extreme" than another.

[RG]

The Viennese Aktionism thread got me thinking about Helnwein again so I thought I'd post some of his work.