SOLO Independencia presents Helnwein: mundos invertidos, the first major retrospective in Spain of Gottfried Helnwein. Bringing together more than 40 works spanning four decades, the exhibition offers a comprehensive insight into the artist’s practice, developed in collaboration with over a dozen European collections.
Through hyperrealist painting and a visual language shaped by popular culture, Helnwein’s work proposes an active reflection on power, memory, and history. His images — at once precise and unsettling — draw the viewer into a universe where childhood, violence, and ideology intersect, revealing the fragility of the narratives that define contemporary culture.
The exhibition unfolds in dialogue with works by more than 30 international artists from the SOLO Collection, including Ai Weiwei, Kate MccGwire and Keiichi Tanaami, among others. Across painting, sculpture, drawing and AI-generated film, these encounters expand Helnwein’s universe into a broader field of visual and conceptual tensions.
Popular Culture and Disturbance
Helnwein: mundos invertidos situates the viewer in a disquieting territory where reality and fiction merge. Familiar cultural icons appear displaced and transformed: figures such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck are recontextualised, sometimes juxtaposed with totalitarian imagery, exposing the instability of cultural symbols and collective memory.
Throughout the exhibition, references to art history and mass media coexist. Echoes of Edward Hopper emerge alongside allusions to Hollywood cinema, manga, and music figures such as Marilyn Manson. In Helnwein’s work, entertainment becomes a critical tool — a way of interrogating the mechanisms through which images shape perception and power.
“I believe that comics are the visual language of the 20th century,” the artist has stated, underlining the centrality of popular imagery in his practice.
Childhood and Violence
At the core of the exhibition lies the recurring motif of childhood. Far from an idealised vision, Helnwein presents children in states of vulnerability, tension, and exposure to structural violence. These emotionally charged images resist explanation, instead operating through direct impact.
Positioned between innocence and brutality, beauty and horror, the works invite an immediate, visceral response. For Helnwein, the image does not illustrate — it confronts. It becomes a space where personal and collective histories collide.
Goya and the Persistence of History
Helnwein’s work maintains a sustained dialogue with the history of art, particularly with Francisco de Goya. The influence of The Disasters of War resonates throughout the exhibition, not as direct reference but as a shared visual and ethical language.
Drawing equally from tradition and contemporary visual culture — from painting to video games — Helnwein constructs images that address violence as a persistent, structural condition. Past and present intertwine, producing scenes that feel both familiar and profoundly unstable.
A Labyrinthine Experience
Occupying the entirety of SOLO Independencia, the exhibition unfolds as a labyrinthine journey. The architecture of the space — designed by Juan Herreros — becomes an active part of the experience, dissolving the neutrality of the white cube and establishing a continuous dialogue between artwork and environment.
Within this structure, works by artists such as Raymond Pettibon and El Roto introduce additional layers of critical reflection, expanding the exhibition into a multi-voiced field where different generations and visual languages intersect.
Expanded Formats and Citywide Presence
For this exhibition, SOLO Independencia extends its opening hours and introduces new visiting formats, including self-guided and guided options in both Spanish and English. The programme is complemented by free admission every Wednesday.
In parallel, the exhibition expands beyond the main venue with two large-scale works presented at SOLO CSV, extending Helnwein’s presence into the wider urban context of Madrid.
About Gottfried Helnwein
Born in Vienna in 1948, Gottfried Helnwein is one of the most significant figures in contemporary art. His practice spans painting, photography, performance, and stage design, though he is particularly renowned for his hyperrealist paintings.
Shaped by the experience of post-war Europe, his work consistently addresses themes of trauma, memory, and violence, often through the figure of the child. Since his first solo exhibition in 1970, Helnwein has exhibited internationally, and his work is held in major institutions including LACMA, SFMOMA, the Smithsonian, and ZKM Karlsruhe. His 2023 retrospective at the Albertina in Vienna attracted over 300,000 visitors, marking a record attendance for a living artist.
- Book your tickets here.
Open from Tuesday to Saturday:
Morning access (11:30–14:00): Self-Guided visit.
Afternoon access: Guided tours with limited capacity.