Dark Mouse

Dark Mouse is a work by the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein (Vienna, Austria, 1948). The violent betrayal of childhood innocence has been the central theme of his work from his early paintings to the present, where his scathing portraits of human brutality prompt the viewer to reflect on the most indescribable side of our nature. Born in a Vienna still under the shadow of the Third Reich, Helnwein was deeply affected by his childhood experiences. Horror, war, and genocide inspire his works, many of which have children as protagonists in scenes of violence and suffering.