Gottfried Helnwein's artistic style is straightforward, uninhibited and idiosyncratic. From his 1970's hyperrealistism paintings of tortured girls to the paintings and photography he does today, Helnwein's work confronts us with the dark side of human nature.

He analyses current and historical events and reveals underlying structures of power and violence. A recurring motif has been the mechanisms of the National Socialist regime – Helnwein's pictures are a plea against collective denial and forgetting.