Are You Afraid of the Art - Opening This Weekend!

That's right Boos and Ghouls, you have less than seven days (seven days!) until the Halloween event that will put the 'Art' back in "Heart-stopping,' the 'Ooo' in 'Spooky,' and the 'Wee!' back in 'Halloween'! Are You Afraid of the Art, opens this Saturday, Oct. 13th (eek!) from 5pm to 7pm, giving you plenty of time for tricks and/or treats after.

Are you Afraid of the Art will feature art work from Open Door artists, as well as artists from the Columbus arts community. The work ranges from scary to adorable and, in some cases, a most puzzling combination of the two. The opening will feature enough treats to make a dentist weep and costumes are highly encouraged. (For real. We will all be in costume and may deem you less than fun should you come in your regular clothes. Unless your regular clothes are some form of costume, in which case, rock on).

Of corpse, I don't want you to come ill prepared, so I thought I'd share a few of my frightful favorite pieces of art that feature the strange and spooky.

1. Caravaggio's Medusa

Yikes! Here's a lady I would not want to mess with (although I feel she and I could exchange hair-care tips) Carravaggio, the Italian Baroque painter, painted this image of the Gorgon queen in 1596 while living in Rome. Carravaggio, who is famous for being a bit of a hot head himself, had recently left Milan due to "certain quarrels". (Definitely more Tricks than Treats with this guy) Snakes to his awesome use of dark and light, Carravaggio had a large influence on the painters of his time, as well as today.

2. The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Don't you just hate it when you're trying to get to sleep and that big demon won't stop sitting on your chest? I know I do. Henry Fuseli, on the other hand, found it so inspiring he painted this image not once, but three different times. For a complete and truly bizarre interpretation, check out the image's wikipedia page. What can we learn from this piece- don't look a creepy-gift-horse in it's blank and bottomless eyes? Don't mess with Swiss Artists?  

 3. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters  by Francisco Goya

This print is arguably the most famous of Goya's Los Caprichos series. Los Caprichos was a set of 80 prints in which Goya, a hard-core Enlightenment Fan, critiqued everything about the society in which he lived (sort of like an 18th century Steven Colbert). Goya's monsters are some of my favorites, as some of the scariest monsters to me exist in real life (example: clowns) 

 4. from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch's paintings are like a 'where's Waldo' of creepy little buggers. I don't even know where to start- the owls? The little gremlins? Awesome! I could look at this painting all day. Little is known about Bosch's life because he left no diaries or letters. Probably because he was too busy coming up with amazing beasties.

5. James Ensor's skeletons

Aw, look at these two guys- so happy! And that one has a hat! Everything's better with a hat (Don't believe me? Ask the internet). Although a 19th century painter, Ensor's bizarre paintings of skulls, carnival masks and puppets had a large influence on many of the 20th century surrealists.


Do you have a favorite piece of monster art? Perhaps you'll have a new one after this Saturday!

Are You Afraid of the Art
Saturday, October 10th

5pm to 7pm

See you there!

sources
wikipedia.com
my brain

my smart coworkers