Horror fans are celebrating painting, a time-honored yet underrated medium for scaring the shit out of people.
Redditor agwoodliffe got this unique discussion going by asking r/horror users, “Which artists have produced the scariest paintings?” Although that subreddit is focused mainly on movies and TV, members proved that painting isn’t out of their element by suggesting dozens of terrifying artists and paintings.
For artists, H. R. Giger got the most upvotes, which makes sense because his biomechanical paintings inspired the look of Alien and its eponymous monster. Giger’s designs were so influential that he and his Alien crew won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
The same Redditor that mentioned Giger also mentioned Hieronymus Bosch, a Dutch artist whose paintings are still creeping people out over five centuries after his death.
Scubagirl768 seconded Bosch, calling his work the “stuff of nightmares.”
Another highly-upvoted selection is Zdzisław Beksiński, a Polish painter of apocalyptic images.
In addition to naming other classic horror painters like Francisco Goya and Francis Bacon, Redditors made us relive our childhood nightmares by citing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark artist Stephen Gammell.
As for individual paintings, NonameKid9 shouted out Flaying of Marsyas by Titan.
And then there are Goya’s Black Paintings, which, as SkeletonLad informed us, were “discovered after his death painted on the walls of his home.”
See, even in the era of big screen CG horror, centuries-old paintings can give us goosebumps.
Published: Jul 21, 2022 02:00 am