Welcome

Hello and welcome to Gallery Of Fear. Here we show images from past and present that create the feeling of Fear within the spectators of said artwork. The gallery is ran by no other than Mason T. Guilliam from online art class, at Crafton Hills College, in Yucaipa, California.. Enjoy

In today's Exhibition we will be taking a look at artwork that has dazzled millions and have a long time reputation with FEAR, along with some new pieces of artwork that the curator himself believe to exhibit such emotion. The following artists have been chosen specifically for this exhibition because their artwork either exhibit the emotion of fear or creates the feeling of Fear within the spectators of said artwork:

·         Edvard Munch

·         Hans Memling

·         Henry Fuseli

·         Andy Warhol

·         William Blake

·         Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault

·         Peter Paul Rubens

·         Salvador Dali

·         John Lautermilch

·         Katerina Apostolakou

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Artist: Edvard Munch
Title: The Scream
Date: 1893
Medium: Oil, Tempera and pastel on Cardboard
Dimensions: 91 cm × 73.5 cm

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes built upon some of the main tenets of late 19th-century Symbolism and greatly influenced German Expressionism in the early 20th century. One of his most well-known works is The Scream of 1893. The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. It has been widely interpreted as representing "the universal anxiety of modern man."⁽ Eggum, Arne; Munch, Edvard (1984). Edvard Munch: Paintings, Sketches, and Studies. New York: C.N. Potter)  Art critic Laura Cummings remarks on this work of art, she states, " Painted with broad bands of garish color and highly simplified forms, and employing a high viewpoint, the agonized figure is reduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotional crisis." The Scream is an excellent example of fear, by viewing the objects expressions one catches a sense of anxiety and panic. Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."( Prideaux, Sue (2005). Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. New Haven: Yale University Press)

Hell by Hans Memling

Artist: Hans Memling
Title: Hell
Date: 1485
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 22 x 14 cm

Hans Memling was a German painter who lived in  Flanders and worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting From the 1460s until the end of his life he became one of the leading artists, painting both portraits and  religious works, using the style he learned in his youth from his masters. Art critic Laura Cummings states it best, "The image shows a Hell beast Man as well as woman, devil as well as dragon, dog and bird, this vicious critter is dancing on the damned as they burn in eternal hell fire. Memling heaps up the horror, so that the inferno broils within the jaws of a colossal fish and the demon holds a banner emphatically denying the possibility of hope: "In hell there is no redemption'." The scene is part of a larger altarpiece intended to frighten 15th-century churchgoers into far better behavior. This piece falls perfectly in place here. This image was used throughout time to force people to live a better lifestyle through fear of damnation. Those who set their eyes upon this image were fearful of their own fate.

Saturn Devouring His Son by Peter Paul Rubens

Artist: Peter Paul Rubbins
Title: Saturn Devouring His Son
Date: 1636-1638
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 180 x 87 cm

Peter Paul Rubens was a German born Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well known for his Counter Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. According to some versions of the Greek myth, Saturn  believed he was destined to be overcome by his own sons, so he devoured each of them as newborns to defeat the prophecy. Rubens painted this horror story quite differently from Goya, who showed a monster biting the head off a grown man. In this painting, Saturn is a ruthless murderer intent on the consumption of his own baby, starting with the infant's tender chest as if it were the succulent flesh of a chicken. This image exhibits true fear within itself, the fear of the innocence. Within the image you see Saturn devouring his son, however the expression on the child's face as he is devoured by his own father exhibits pure fear. The child's expression shows the fear of a child losing his life and yet not understanding why. This young child exhibits pure fear because all he can do is trust his father will protect him against the world they live in but yet Saturn is full of greed and takes his son's life with no remorse, sucking the energy straight for the poor infants chest. I chose this piece over Goya's  because of the intense fear on the child's face and the amazing artwork to go with .I believe this portrait tells more of a horror story compared to Goya's

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Artist: Henry Fuseli
Title: The Nightmare
Date: 1781
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 101.6 cm × 127 cm (40 in × 50 in)

Henry Fuseli was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art. He worked and spent most of his life in Britain. Fuseli painted more than 200 pictures, but he only showed  a small number of them. The first piece of art to excite and draw the public's  attention was The Nightmare. The Nightmare is Henry Fuseli's best known work. Poet Erasmus Darwin wrote a poem about The Nightmare which he included  in his long poem The Loves of the Plants (1789), for which Fuseli provided the frontispiece. The portion of the poem was written as such: " So on his Nightmare through the evening fog

Flits the squab Fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog;
Seeks some love-wilder'd maid with sleep oppress'd,
Alights, and grinning sits upon her breast.

Such as of late amid the murky sky

Was mark'd by Fuseli's poetic eye;
Whose daring tints, with Shakspeare's happiest grace,
Gave to the airy phantom form and place.—
Back o'er her pillow sinks her blushing head,
Her snow-white limbs hang helpless from the bed;
Her interrupted heart-pulse swims in death.

O'er her fair limbs convulsive tremors fleet,
Start in her hands, and struggle in her feet;
In vain to scream with quivering lips she tries,
And strains in palsy'd lids her tremulous eyes;
In vain she wills to run, fly, swim, walk, creep;
The Will presides not in the bower of Sleep.
—On her fair bosom sits the Demon-Ape
Erect, and balances his bloated shape;
Rolls in their marble orbs his Gorgon-eyes,
And drinks with leathern ears her tender cries" (Erasmus Darwin)

 "The canvas portrays the worst dream in art and by far the most famous. The sleeper in her virginal nightgown lies readied on the bed like a sacrificial victim, throat stretched bare as if for the blade. On her stomach squats an excremental troll. His pricked ears cast horn-like shadows on the curtains behind her, which are, in turn, thrust apart by the head of a wild-eyed stallion. Even those blind to the intimations of rape, bestiality, voyeurism and murder can feel the power of Fuseli's metaphor: the nightmare as nocturnal violation." (Laura Cummings). The Nightmare was meant to cause nightmares.  The canvas portray a dreaming woman and the content of her nightmare  This gives the viewer fear because it brings into perspective that the spirit world and reality are not too far apart and that it is possible that the evils of the spirit realm can access and torment our souls through Nightmares. This work of art fits into the theme beautifully. Accompanied  with an eerie poem this painting strikes fear into the hearts of those who view this painting. The painting itself  was intended to cause nightmares for those who lay their eyes upon it. 

Heads Severed by Jean Louis Andrè Thèodore Gèricault

Artist: Jean Louis Andrè Thèodore Gèricault 
Title: Heads Severed
Date: 1818
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 50 x 61 cm

 Louis Andrè Thèodore Gèricault was a influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings. Although he died young, he became one of the pioneers of the Romantic movement. Gericault’s most famous work is the Raft of the Medusa, however Gericault sought to break out of the classicism which was the standard painting style of his time. Romanticism was on the rise and not afraid to tackle emotional subjects. Gericault worked on paintings such as the severed heads as prefatory pieces before he tackled his larger works. He found limbs and severed heads in the morgues and dissection labs of hospitals. The painting is troubling, but many great artists have studied the dead to better paint the living. This image invokes fear in the living because of the pure graphicness of the painting. The two severed heads show how mortal man is and that no one is above death, one false step for any man or woman and this could be their fate. One heads eyes remain open starring at the viewer as if he's begging for help, for another chance or fore warning the spectator that this could be their fate.