Paintings are what most people think of whenever the word "art" is mentioned. There's many beautiful pieces and very melancholic examples as well. Then, there are those paintings that give us nightmares! It has happened to most of us: as kids we're at a relative's house walking through a hallway at night. Then we see it! On one of the walls is a painting so unnerving that you couldn't suppress the instinct to run straight through the hall with your eyes closed. All just to avoid looking at it any longer. Said paintings are very straightforward when it comes to their unnerving imagery. Then, there's paintings with subtle details. The longer you look at them, the more you see and the more you realize. Said paintings have the interesting quality of starting out as deciveably calm but become more unsettling for the viewer the more they look at them. That's how these paintings can bring us back to when we were children and remind us of what we felt back then at the sight of the most horrid pieces. Here's a list of some of the darkest, most disturbing examples ever conceived...
Before getting started, let's look at some honorable mentions:
-"Satan II" by H.R. Giger: Click to see
-"Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X" by Francis Bacon: Click to see
-"Death And The Miser" by Hieronymus Bosch: Click to see
-"The Flaying of the Corrupt Judge Sisamnes" by Gerard David: Click to see
With that being said, let's get started:
10. "Satan I" by H.R. Giger
This painting depicts a horrible scene. The first time I saw it I didn't know what to think. Painted by artist H.R. Giger, it's a really creepy piece of art, yet still it's one of the most legendary pieces of art I've seen and I think most of my fellow metalheads agree with me. The reason is pretty simple, this painting was featured as album cover of the legendary album "To Mega Therion" by the extreme metal band Celtic Frost. It's still a pretty scary painting.
9. "Lagrimas De Sangre" (a.k.a. "Tears of Blood") by Oswaldo Guayasamin
This is the painting I was talking about in the beginning. The one that scared me as a kid! The artist responsible for creating this horrid piece of art actually comes from my country! Yep, Oswaldo Guayasamin is Ecuadorian. I respect him a lot as an artist but i'm not really into his work. This piece however... That face hunts my nightmares! It still scares the crap out of my little cousins!
8. "Deterioration Of Mind Over Matter" by Otto Rapp
Just look at it... Jesus Christ! Painted by a man who used to live in Canada and study engineering before becoming a self-taught painter, this painting looks horrific! Just look at the dammed thing! God!
7. "Anatomical Pieces" by Theodore Gericault
In my opinion, the only places where I can see this hung on display is either a museum or a psychiatric hospital. I simply can't picture this hung in a random wall at a normal family's house. How creepy would it be to see this at a relative's house? I'm guessing that the only people who would have this at their house for display are people who are really into cannibalism...
6. "Gallowgate Lard" by Ken Currie
I really don't like this painting. It was supposed to be a self-portrait, it ended up becoming the most horrible face I've seen. Although the artist's intentions were different, this painting looks evil as hell...
5. "Heads Severed" by Theodore Gericault
Same as number 7 but worse. This time it's heads instead of arms and legs... JESUS CHRIST, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY?!
4. "The Hands Resist Him" by Bill Stoneham
I know the fact that this is so high on the list is gonna piss some poeple off. Call me ignorant if you want. I'm not much of a paint critique. I prefer music. This list is based on my opinion and my opinion is that "The Hands Resist Him" is one of the creepiest paintings I've ever seen. It's supposedly haunted, which makes it worse. It has 2 sequels that aren't as creepy. The doll really doesn't help at all...
3. "Disasters Of War" by Francisco Goya
You don't have to be a genius to realize why this is so high up on the list. A horrific scene from the worst curse to ever be laid upon mankind: war.
2. "Figure With Meat" by Francis Bacon
Made as a remake of the previously mentioned "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X", artist Francis Bacon made it a lot more creepy by adding elements of death into it. The results were sinister as it can be!
1. "The Anguished Man" by an unknown artist
Once again, I'm not an art critique. The fact that this painting takes the first place on my list is solely based in the fact that I can't bring myself to look at this painting for more than 10 seconds straight. It's pretty horrible. The artist's who was responsible for it's creation supposedly lived a really creepy life. He allegedly painted this particular artwork using a mixture of red paint and his own blood. He killed himself shortly after finishing it. It's supposedly one of the most cursed items on earth. There's an entire YouTube channel dedicated to recording what happens at night with this painting. Creepy stuff...
As always, hope you enjoyed and learned something! Thanks!
