Gottfried Helnwein | ARTISTA | Biografía | Large installation in the city center of Cologne, between the Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral: "Neunter November Nacht" (Ninth November Night).Selection

"In memory of the children of Europe who have to die of cold and hunger this Xmas", was written on the draft of a poster in the winter of 1945 by the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka who emigrated to London. He had 5000 copies printed at his own cost and posted in underground stations.
In late autumn 1988 the Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein, who emigrated to the Rhineland, mounted a series of five meter high photo prints with children's faces along a one hundred meter long wall between the cathedral of Cologne and the Museum Ludwig. He called the work Selection (Ninth November Night). It is a work of monstrous expression and painful effect. His title recalls the anniversary of the so-called Reichskristallnacht, through which Helnwein gives the children's portraits their almost overwhelmingly harrowing effect.
As we were preparing his exhibition for the Lentos Art Museum together with Gottfried Helnwein, I was researching at the same time for a different project about Kokoschka. The story of the London posters was new to me. Unintentionally and unexpectedly the two artist lives blended into one another for a brief poignant moment. With a tremendous creative effort, ability to communicate, organizational experience, implementation energy and financial resources, both artists devoted themselves on a specific occasion to an appeal: Remember!


		Selektion, Neunter November Nacht, (Ninth November Night), 1988 100m-long (300 feet) Installation First installation: at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne Scanachrome on Vinyl each picture 370 x 250 cm, 146 x 98 inches


		INSTALLATION "NINTH OF NOVEMBER NIGHT" BETWEEN THE LUDWIG MUSEUM AND THE DOME OF COLOGNE 09. November 1988 Ludwig Museum, Cologne INSTALLATION "NINTH OF NOVEMBER NIGHT" BETWEEN THE LUDWIG MUSEUM AND THE DOME OF COLOGNE Museum Ludwig, Cologne, September 17. - November 3. 1988 INSTALLATION "NINTH OF NOVEMBER NIGHT" BETWEEN THE LUDWIG MUSEUM AND THE DOME OF COLOGNE


		CHILDRENS’ PORTRAITS DESTROYED BY KNIVES 26. October 1988 Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Cologne hue Gottfried Helnwein’s photography project “Ninth November Night," a spectacular work of art that recalls the destruction of the synagogues during the so-called “Reichskristallnacht,” was itself the target of an attack. On Monday night an unknown person destroyed all seventeen child portraits with knife slashes. The portraits had been set up between the Museum Ludwig and the Dome of Cologne. Helnwein had financed the project himself. CHILDRENS’ PORTRAITS DESTROYED BY KNIVES


		PRESENCE AND TIME: GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN'S PICTURES Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz Stella Rollig Director 2006


01. diciembre 1988