Gouache, airbrush and color chalk on carboard.
Signed lower left. 51,5 x 42,5 cm (20,2 x 16,7 in), the full sheet.

PROVENANCE: Private collection South Germany.

Gottfried Helnwein has been dealing with figures from popular culture since the 1970s, with a strong focus on Disney characters. s of 1981 he begins working on a series of contemporary "heroes", among which is the famous alien E.T. from the 1982 motion picture by Steven Spielberg. Helnwein foils art by ennobling the mass media fantasy figure to a motif for art. However, this does not go without satirsing the figure itself, the childish innocent E.T. smokes a cigarette! [JS].