When Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein opened a show of his paintings recently, celebrities crowded a downtown gallery. Leonardo DiCaprio rubbed elbows with Marilyn Manson. Beck chatted with Kevin Smith. Mena Suvari stopped for a photo op, and Sean Penn lent his cool. For a recent transplant, Helnwein attracted much Hollywood.
Beyond the paintings, actor Jason Lee was the reason for the high celebrity quotient.
Lee recently created the Jason Lee Foundation for the Arts to support contemporary artists through grants and exhibitions. This was the foundation's first opening in its new 3,000-square-foot downtown space, and Lee had pulled Hollywood strings to amp up the star wattage.
"You can use Hollywood to your advantage," he said recently in his photography studio. At the opening, he said, guests had expected a typical industry schmooze party but had been drawn in by the art--haunting large-scale works, some of stillborn children. "They were enthralled by the work," he said. "It was a quiet, strange exhibit."
If people come for the celebrities but end up looking at the art, he has achieved his goal, he said.
For Helnwein, the mix of music, Hollywood and artists had served another purpose--generating more work.
He and Manson had agreed to do a project together, and Smith had commissioned him to do a large scale painting of his son. Helnwein couldn't wait to meet Dennis Hopper.
He was following in the (big) footsteps of another Austrian. As it had for Arnold, L.A. lay glittering in front of Helnwein. He was glad he had come West.
"New York is dead," he said.
Lee explained his vision for the foundation--drawing more people to contemporary art, and, in particular, to the gallery on Traction Avenue--as he and Helnwein gave a tour of Lee's studio and the gallery around the corner. (Helnwein has a studio loft next door to Lee's.)
In Lee's studio, one of Helnwein's canvases, "Epi- phany II (Presentation at the Temple)," a hyperrealist painting in blue tones, depicts a young girl lying on a kitchen table in front of a semi-circle of disfigured men in formal suits.
"People are used to seeing things 24 frames a second," said Lee, adding that his goal was to get people to concentrate on just one frame at a time. "This town needs it more than anywhere else."
The Next Generation
