Art is the Solution

Mischief Night Source: Wikiart Happy Halloween! To wrap up my month of spooky paintings and to celebrate the spookiest day of them all, I decided to share the most trick-or-treat-tastic image I could think of: Mischief Night by Jamie Wyeth. This charming painting depicts a pumpkin sitting in a wicker cart on wheels; a bamboo cane leans rakishly out of the back of the cart. The pumpkin’s long stem also trails over the back of the cart, almost like the limbs of a living creature. A Jack-o'-lantern face has been carved into the pumpkin, and the eyes are only just visible over the edge of the cart. This little detail makes the pumpkin feel almost alive. At first glance, it’s perfectly easy to imagine the pumpkin rolling off in its cart, ready to play tricks and cause trouble on Mischief Night (usually the night before Halloween). It’s like a little orange hobgoblin. The black, night sky forms the background of this strange image. Pumpkins are a passion for the Wyeth family, as is Hall...

The Gates of Hell (The Kunsthaus Zürich) Source: Wikimedia Commons There are few sculptors more famous than Auguste Rodin. He’s widely considered to be the father of modern sculpting, and I bet you’ve seen his most recognizable masterpiece, The Thinker , parodied a million times in pop culture. However, I bet you’ve never heard of his spookiest piece of art: The Gates of Hell . Commissioned as the entrance for Paris’ Museum of Decorative Arts (a museum that never materialized, by the way), The Gates of Hell depicts scenes from Dante’s Inferno , including famous vignettes such as the story of Ugolino and his children and the story of Paolo and Francesca. The sculpture contains 180 figures in total, many of which do not appear in Dante’s work at all. Rather, these figures were inspired by the Inferno, but have their roots in Rodin’s personal interpretation of the text. In fact, Many of Rodin’s most famous works—including the exalted Thinker —began as an element of The Gates of Hell . De...

Cat's Nightmare Source: Illustration Chronicles Today is National Cat Day! That means we’re going to spend some time celebrating felines through art, and there’s no better artist for that job than Louis Wain. Wain was a true devotee of cats. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a piece of Wain art that didn’t include a cat. Purportedly, Wain began drawing cats to cheer up his ill wife, but it’s clear that cats soon became an obsession for him. Early in his career, Wain typically drew anthropomorphized versions of cats performing human activities. Many of these drawings are really charming and funny; however, his cats became increasingly abstract and surreal after Wain began to suffer from mental health problems. He was eventually confined to a psychiatric hospital, where he spent the last years of his life drawing cats in the garden. Today, some experts believe that Wain suffered from schizophrenia; although, it’s impossible to know for sure. Since Halloween is almost upon us...

The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth Source: Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) I love drama in art. That’s why I find myself drawn time and time again to the art of Henry Fuseli. His work is extreme and theatrical, capturing moments of horror, pain, and intense human emotion on the canvas. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. Simply put, Fuseli’s art revels in the weird and dramatic. The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth is a particularly spooky (perfect for Halloween) example of Fuseli’s dark and dramatic art. The painting depicts a key moment from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Here, we see Lady Macbeth—having previously killed the king—bemoaning her guilt as she sleepwalks through the castle. While asleep, she tries obsessively to wash her hands convinced that they are stained by blood. A doctor and attendent in the background look on in surprise, puzzled by her strange behavi...

Duendecitos Source: Royal Academy of Arts Today, Francisco Goya is known as one of the most creative and forward-looking artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This was a turbulent time in Europe, marked by war, revolution, and intellectual and political upheaval. This chaos provided ample artistic subjects for Goya, and current events and social attitudes became frequent themes in his work. Hobgoblins ( Duendecitos in Spanish) comes from Goya’s Caprichos , a series of prints created around the turn of the century. These prints present a satirical image of Spanish society, criticizing the follies, superstitions, and ignorance of people from every walk of life. The creation of the Caprichos marks a major turning point in Goya’s artistic life. Throughout his early career, Goya worked as a court artist, focusing mostly on formal portraits and tapestry cartoons intended to decorate royal residences. Since this work was created for patrons, it was fairly conventio...

The Somnambulist  Source: Wikimedia Commons I’ve never seen anyone sleep walk; however, I imagine it’s quite the sight to behold. The idea of a person who is deeply asleep walking around as if they were awake is rather eerie and disconcerting. It’s no wonder that sleepwalking has been regarded as a mysterious and even supernatural act throughout history. John Everett Millais explores the psychological mystery of sleepwalking in The Somnambulist . The piece depicts a woman in a long, white nightgown walking through the night. Her expression is strangely blank, suggesting that she is in some sort of trance. She carries an extinguished candle in one hand, emphasizing the darkness and peril of the scene. To the left, it’s possible to see the edge of a cliff and dark water; the sleepwalker is only inches away from falling to her death, yet she is completely unaware of her danger. Millais had a flair for the dramatic. His paintings are full of characters facing grim and dangerous situa...

Haunted House Source: Art Institute of Chicago I first encountered this painting on social media. When I initially saw it, I thought to myself “now this is what I call a haunted house!” The piece immediately struck me as a creative and chilling way to depict a haunting. As Halloween approaches, I wanted to share this unique vision of a haunted house. After all, there’s nothing spookier than a spirit in your living room! As the title suggests, Haunted House depicts a living room decorated in the early American, Colonial style. The atmosphere is cheerful and bright; however, the warm and inviting room is juxtaposed with several eerie shadows that dominate the foreground of the painting. One of these shadowy forms takes the shape of a person, while the other shapes suggest an open door. Other houses are embedded in these ghostly shapes, blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors and day and night. To the viewer, it feels as though there is an unwelcome presence in the room. It’s alm...

The Dead Mother Source: Wikimedia Commons Edvard Munch epitomizes the stereotype of the tortured artist. The Norwegian painter lived a difficult life that was marred by grief, family troubles, and substance abuse as well as physical and mental health issues. No piece of art better exemplifies this than Munch’s The Dead Mother . The painting depicts a deathbed scene. In the background, a dead woman with ghostly white skin lies on a bed while adults in dark clothes—presumably mourners or family members—cluster around her. However, the child in the foreground is the most memorable part of the piece. This little girl stands with her hands over her ears and an expression of abject horror on her face. It is clear that the child is in a state of profound shock and grief. The Dead Mother expresses total devastation, verging on madness.Although there are living adults in the room, the child is alone in her pain, standing isolated in the foreground. It is a very sad image, capturing a lonely l...

The Last Supper 1984 Source: Goldwell Open Museum October is the month of all things spooky. So, to celebrate the month of Halloween, I want to talk about a sculpture that rethinks a classic piece of art in a uniquely creepy way: The Last Supper by Albert Szukalski. Housed in the Goldwell Open Museum—an outdoor sculpture park that was created to house the piece—the piece reimagines Leonardo Da Vinci's fresco the Last Supper . As you’re probably aware, this fresco is one of the most famous and recognizable pieces of art in the world (my guess is that only the Mona Lisa and Starry Night are more famous). However, you could be forgiven for failing to recognize Da Vinci's influence on Szukalski’s work. Instead of the flesh and blood figures that populate Da Vinci's work, Christ and his apostles appear in Szukalski’s sculpture as ghosts. According to my research , Szukalski was inspired to create the Last Supper after observing the similarities between the landscape of the...

Thor Battling the Midgard Serpent Source: Wikimedia Commons Throughout history, many artists have set out to create shocking or dramatic scenes. However, few of them achieve this goal as successfully as Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. In fact, drama is the bread and butter of Fuseli’s oeuvre. His work is extreme and theatrical, capturing moments of horror, pain, and intense human emotion on his canvas. His work is most closely aligned with the Romantic movement, which drew its inspiration from emotion and individualism. Thus, it’s unsurprising that his work is steeped in melodrama (which is one of my favorite things in art). Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent is one of Fuseli’s most memorable paintings. Created as his diploma piece for entrance to the Royal Academy, the piece depicts a story from Norse mythology. Here, we see the Norse god Thor doing battle with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr. According to legend, Jörmungandr—one of Loki’s children—encircled the whole world. In one tale...

Self Portrait in Hell Source: Google Arts & Culture Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream is perhaps the most famous depiction of psychological pain and human suffering in all of art history. However, this theme is not unique in Munch’s work. In fact, there are few artists who are more known for portraying torment than Edvard Munch. Many of his paintings include figures at the extremes of human emotion, passing through a gauntlet of spiritual or emotional assault. This tendency in his work is perhaps a reflection of Munch’s own struggles. As a young child, Munch lost both his mother and his favorite sister to tuberculosis, and much of his childhood was overshadowed by grief. Their deaths also caused a lingering sense of sadness and unhappiness in the Munch household that left its mark on young Edvard. Munch also suffered from his own health problems as a child. As an adult, Munch also came to fear that he had inherited madness from his father. Speaking of his own childhood, Munch once...

The Ancestor Source: Museo de Mujeres Leonora Carrington occupies a unique place in art history. Forced to flee Europe during World War II, Carrington spent most of her adult life in Mexico, where she found an artistic home. A member of the Surrealist movement, Carrington’s art was extraordinarily creative and original as well as notoriously difficult to interpret. Carrington was a visionary, both literally and figuratively. She reported that she often had visions of ghosts and animals when she was a child; these memories undoubtably impacted her adult work. As well as being a visual artist, Carrington was also a writer, and her art often illustrated or referred to the fantastical concepts that emerged from her writing. Her history with ghosts might come into play in her 1968 painting The Ancestor . The painting depicts a spectral figure dressed in a sheet and standing in the midst of a white circle. Around the edge of the circle, strange, ghostly animals gaze out at the viewer with ...

Death and the Gravedigger Source: Wikimedia Commons The work of Carlos Schwabe can be described in one word: bizarre. Schwabe created some of the weirdest and creepiest paintings in all of Western art, ranging from the bloody and the horrifying to Romantic and touching scenes. Regardless of subject, however, all of Schwabe’s work exhibits a fiercely original mind and an expansive imagination. Schwabe was associated with the Symbolist movement, which centered on the idea of seeking a higher truth through art. Unlike previous generations of artists who sought truth through realism, Symbolist artists used their own powers of imagination, dreams, and visions to explore the artist’s personal experience of reality. As such, Schwabe’s paintings are individualistic and experimental. He was particularly interested in exploring the idea of death, a subject he often tackled through the portrayal of women. Death and the Gravedigger is a good example of this aspect of his art. It is an allegorical ...

Fear Source: Art Institute of Chicago French painter Odilon Redon was the leader of his own particular artistic revolution. His work was far ahead of its time, so much so that his art would inspire and inform the work of Surrealist painters and other modern art movements years after Redon’s death. Redon was aligned with the Symbolist movement, which centered on the idea of seeking a higher truth through art. Unlike previous generations of artists who sought truth through realism, Symbolist artists reacted against the increasing industrialization and standardization of the modern world. Instead, they used their own powers of imagination, dreams, and visions to explore the artist’s personal experience of reality. Redon’s paintings and drawings are wildly creative and inventive, utilizing a unique and easily recognizable visual style. His early work is particularly innovative; as a young artist, Redon created a series of noirs , drawings and lithographs executed in shades of black. These ...

An Aardvark Groomed by Widows Source: Biblioklept October is the season of Halloween and all things spooky, including witches. Witches are a common theme in Western art, but their depiction has changed over time. To my mind, Leonora Carrington’s An Aardvark Groomed by Widows offers a modern interpretation of the theme of witchcraft in art (even though the piece has ostensibly nothing to do with witches at all). The piece depicts a group of women dressed in black who are circled around a white aardvark in a bowl of water. As the title suggests, the women are washing and tending to the aardvark, who seems to be enjoying the attention. A faceless figure on the far left holds what seems to be a baby aardvark in its hands while a tiny figure in black sweeps the ground in the foreground of the painting. The background is an abstract wash of brown dotted with shadowy, indistinct animals and figures. Ritual is a major theme in Carrington’s work, and it’s clear that the women in An Aardvark Gr...

A Subject from the Runic Superstitions … Source: The Tate As Halloween approaches, I want to share one of the darkest and most mysterious paintings out there: A Subject from the Runic Superstitions . ​​The piece was created by J. M. W. Turner, who is quite possibly the most famous British artist of the modern age (maybe the most famous British painter ever.) Turner is famous for his unique and energetic style. Today, he is known for his imaginative and expressive masterpieces. A Subject from the Runic Superstitions dates from relatively early in Turner’s career. The piece depicts a strange and difficult to decipher scene. A shadowy figure sits on a hillside gesturing towards a mysterious light surrounded by faint, ghostly figures. The night sky stretches out above, illuminated by a bright moon. Other details are hard to make out; only the outlines of trees and the indistinct shapes of snakes writhing on the ground are visible. The exact meaning of this painting is unclear. There is no...

Witching Hour Source: Chadds Ford Gallery As we continue to celebrate the Halloween season, I want to introduce a rather unsettling piece of art: the Witching Hour by Andrew Wyeth. Wyeth is perhaps one of the greatest painters in American history. His work is iconic, forming an indelible image of American life and culture, especially in the mid-twentieth century. Although Wyeth’s work spanned a multitude of subjects, the Wyeth family had a special affinity for Halloween, thriving off the fantastical imagery associated with the holiday. Eerie themes are common in Wyeth’s work, as well as in his son, Jamie Wyeth’s, paintings. Wyeth once explained his work in the following words: There’s witchcraft and hidden meaning there. Halloween and all that is strangely tied into [my paintings]. For me, the paintings have that eerie feeling of goblins and witches out riding on broomsticks—damp rotting leaves and moisture—smell of make-up—as a child, the smell inside of a pumpkin when a candle is li...

Speak! Speak! Source: The Tate The Pre-Raphaelite movement was truly an extraordinary time in the history of art. The Pre-Raphaelites threw out the rule book of art, rejecting the conventions of their age in favor of returning to an earlier style of art. As the name suggests, the Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by early Italian artists and the art of the Medieval age. Their work was characterized by realism and vibrancy. John Everett Millais was one of the most talented artists of his age. Although he began his artistic career as a Pre-Raphaelite, Millais later developed his own unique and mature style. Though he created many masterpieces, Millais himself considered Speak! Speak! to be one of his most serious and profound paintings. The piece, which was completed only a year before Millais’ death, tells a ghost story. As Millais’ son, John Guille Millais, relates: It is that of a young Roman who has been reading through the night the letters of his lost love; and at dawn, behold, the cu...

Linda maestra! Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art Francisco Goya can best be described as a visionary artist. Goya’s work was wildly original, and his art often touches upon strange and fantastical themes. He was certainly way ahead of his time compared to other eighteenth century Spanish artists. Goya’s print series Los Caprichos , published in 1799, is widely considered to be one the most influential artistic projects of its time. The Caprichos were not widely known at the time of their publication, but they had a resounding impact on art over the next hundred years. Although the Caprichos series explores themes of the Enlightenment—which is usually associated with logic and reason—many of the prints are incredibly dark, full of violence, chaos, and black magic. Thus, they’re perfect for Spooky Season (a.k.a. October). Two of the major themes in Los Caprichos are prostitution and witchcraft, both of which are closely related to the way Goya viewed social ills in contemporary Spani...

J'habite au Choc Source: Pinterest I first encountered J'habite au Choc (I Live in Shock) while scrolling through Instagram one day. I was immediately struck by the piece, thinking “what an interesting painting of a haunted house.” However, it wasn’t until I read the caption and started doing my own research that I began to realize the true depth and complexity of the piece. J'habite au Choc was created by Canadian artist Mimi Parent, one of the most important North American Surrealists. Parent is known for incorporating three dimensional materials into her art and is particularly famous for her sculptural tableaux boxes. Her art explores mythological, and folkloric subjects, as well as scenes and objects from her own imagination. While J'habite au Choc clearly acknowledges the idea of the haunted house in Western culture, the image itself seems to be entirely the product of Parent’s own unconscious mind. It is my opinion that Surrealist art taps into the psyche in...

The Changeling Source: Art Institute of Chicago  Swiss artist Henry Fuseli can best be described as a painter of horror. Although his work encompassed a variety of topics, his most memorable pieces touch on the liminal space between ordinary life and the world of supernatural horrors. Fuseli’s art revels in the weird and dramatic, and The Changeling certainly fits that description. The drawing depicts a common piece of European folklore: the changeling. According to legend, a changeling is a fairy child who is left in place of a human infant. The Changeling depicts one such moment of exchange. Here, we can see two women kneeling over a crib containing a fairy child. Their faces betray their horror as they realize that their charge has been abducted. In the background, a fairy can be seen flying out the window with the human child in tow. The entirety of this simple story is rendered in monochrome gray wash and graphite. It is direct and to the point, but powerful. In my opinion, ...

Self-Portrait with Skull Source: National Galleries Scotland There are few twentieth century artists more famous than Andy Warhol. Warhol is famous for his iconic pop art, including Campbell's Soup Cans and The Marilyn Diptych , which features movie star Marilyn Monroe. However, some of his darker pieces are relatively unknown. Self-Portrait with Skull is one of Warhol’s most poignant and unsettling pieces. As the title suggests, the painting depicts the artist with a skull balanced on his shoulder. A red and black background gives the painting a sinister, violent aura. Warhol stares directly at the viewer with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth, an unsettling but also vulnerable expression. The piece was created using one of a series of photos of Warhol posing with a model of a skull. The image was then screen printed and painted. Self-Portrait with Skull reflects Warhol’s fascination with death, a trait that many artists share. Warhol also had a near brush with death in 1968 ...

Tamara and the Demon Source: Wikimedia Commons Would you like to hear a spooky story? It is the Halloween season after all. Well the story I’m going to tell you today is about what happens when a princess meets a demon. Between 1829 and 1839, Russian poet and writer Mikhail Lermontov composed a narrative poem called The Demon . The protagonist of the piece is a Demon who wanders the Caucasus Mountains, wracked by miserable loneliness and hopelessness. Although the Demon is immortal, he views his long life as a perpetual and protracted torment until he happens to see a beautiful young princess named Tamara dancing at her wedding. The demon is immediately enthralled by her and decides to arrange the death of her husband so that he can take his place. Tamara is eventually won over by the Demon when she decides that he is neither an angel or a demon, but simply a tortured soul. The couple share a kiss, but the Demon’s lips are poison, and Tamara dies instantly. The poem ends with the Demon...

Smiling Spider Source: Wikimedia Commons French painter Odilon Redon was a revolutionary artist. Or, perhaps it’s better to say that he was the leader of his own particular artistic revolution. His work was far ahead of its time, so much so that his art would inspire and inform the work of Surrealist painters and other modern art movements years after Redon’s death. So, what makes his work so revolutionary? Redon’s paintings and drawings are wildly creative and inventive, utilizing a unique and easily recognizable visual style. His early work is particularly innovative; as a young artist, Redon created a series of noirs , drawings and lithographs executed in shades of black. These pieces tend to be dark, bizarre, and melancholic with otherworldly or supernatural themes. The Smiling Spider is one of Redon’s most famous noirs . As the title suggests, the piece is a lithograph of a grinning spider with a humanoid face. Its ten legs are sprawled across the page, making it seem almost like...