The man who used his own blood to paint Hitler
Kate Connolly meets Gottfried Helnwein, the Austrian who is still confronting his country's Nazi past
Tuesday May 16, 2000

Walking along Cork Street in central London, trying to locate the Robert Sandelson Gallery, I do a double take on seeing Mick Jagger standing at number 5a, gazing through its paneless window. He has the 70s hairstyle, carved cheeks and angular nose, arms folded and face expressionless as he observes the workmen labouring to reinsert the glass. The whole tableau recalls some contrived album cover. Except it isn't Jagger, but one of his biggest fans, Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein.
It could have been worse. At least he doesn't look like his self-portraits, in which bandages swathe his head, bent forks pull his mouth into a mocking smile and blood drenches his torso. Helnwein, 52, is a master of the scandalous and the art of shocking. The artist Robert Crumb once said of him: "Helnwein is a very fine artist and one sick motherfucker."

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