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The Art of Darkness
The Art of Darkness
Edited by S. Elizabeth
A TREASURY OF THE MORBID, MELANCHOLIC, AND MACABRE
The Art of Darkness is a visually rich sourcebook featuring eclectic artworks that have been inspired and informed by the morbid, melancholic, and macabre.
Throughout history, artists have been obsessed with darkness—creating works that haunt and horrify, mesmerize and delight, and play on our innermost fears. Gentileschi took revenge with paint in Judith Slaying Holofernes while Bosch depicted fearful visions of Hell that still beguile. Victorian Britain became strangely obsessed with the dead, and in Norway Munch explored anxiety and fear in one of the most famous paintings in the world (The Scream, 1893). Today, the Chapman Brothers, Damien Hirst, and Louise Bourgeois, as well as many lesser-known artists working in the margins, are still drawn to all that is macabre.
From “Dreams & Nightmares” to “Matters of Mortality,” “Depravity & Destruction” to “Gods & Monsters,” this book introduces sometimes disturbing and often beautiful artworks that indulge our greatest fears, uniting us as humans from century to century.
But while these themes might scare us, can’t they also be heartening and beautiful? Exploring and examining the artworks with thoughtful and evocative text, S. Elizabeth offers insight into each creator’s influences and inspirations, in search of the comforts that can be found in facing our demons. Why are we tempted by fear and the grotesque? And what does this tell us about the human mind?
Of course, sometimes there is no good that can come from the sensibilities of darkness and the sickly shivers and sensations they evoke. These are uncomfortable feelings, and we must sit for a while with these shadows—from the safety of our armchairs.
This volume includes works by Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Francisco de Goya, Leonora Carrington, John Everett Millais, Tracey Emin, Vincent van Gogh, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Cezanne, and Salvador Dalí, as well as scores more. With over 200 carefully curated artworks from across the centuries, The Art of Darkness examines all that is dark in a bid to haunt and hearten.
S. Elizabeth (aka Mlle Ghoul) is a Florida-based writer specializing in art, the macabre, and the supernatural. She is a staff writer at Haute Macabre and has written for Coilhouse, Dirge, and the blog Death and the Maiden. S. Elizabeth was also the co-creator of the two-volume The Occult Activity Book and runs two successful blogs—Ghoul Next Door (ghoulnextdoor.tumblr.com) and These Unquiet Things (unquietthings.com).
The Peculiar Parish Bookshop is proud to offer The Art of Darkness. These copies are new from the publisher.
Published by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of The Quarto Group (2022).
240-page hardcover book with color illustrations throughout.
Edited by S. Elizabeth
A TREASURY OF THE MORBID, MELANCHOLIC, AND MACABRE
The Art of Darkness is a visually rich sourcebook featuring eclectic artworks that have been inspired and informed by the morbid, melancholic, and macabre.
Throughout history, artists have been obsessed with darkness—creating works that haunt and horrify, mesmerize and delight, and play on our innermost fears. Gentileschi took revenge with paint in Judith Slaying Holofernes while Bosch depicted fearful visions of Hell that still beguile. Victorian Britain became strangely obsessed with the dead, and in Norway Munch explored anxiety and fear in one of the most famous paintings in the world (The Scream, 1893). Today, the Chapman Brothers, Damien Hirst, and Louise Bourgeois, as well as many lesser-known artists working in the margins, are still drawn to all that is macabre.
From “Dreams & Nightmares” to “Matters of Mortality,” “Depravity & Destruction” to “Gods & Monsters,” this book introduces sometimes disturbing and often beautiful artworks that indulge our greatest fears, uniting us as humans from century to century.
But while these themes might scare us, can’t they also be heartening and beautiful? Exploring and examining the artworks with thoughtful and evocative text, S. Elizabeth offers insight into each creator’s influences and inspirations, in search of the comforts that can be found in facing our demons. Why are we tempted by fear and the grotesque? And what does this tell us about the human mind?
Of course, sometimes there is no good that can come from the sensibilities of darkness and the sickly shivers and sensations they evoke. These are uncomfortable feelings, and we must sit for a while with these shadows—from the safety of our armchairs.
This volume includes works by Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Francisco de Goya, Leonora Carrington, John Everett Millais, Tracey Emin, Vincent van Gogh, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Cezanne, and Salvador Dalí, as well as scores more. With over 200 carefully curated artworks from across the centuries, The Art of Darkness examines all that is dark in a bid to haunt and hearten.
S. Elizabeth (aka Mlle Ghoul) is a Florida-based writer specializing in art, the macabre, and the supernatural. She is a staff writer at Haute Macabre and has written for Coilhouse, Dirge, and the blog Death and the Maiden. S. Elizabeth was also the co-creator of the two-volume The Occult Activity Book and runs two successful blogs—Ghoul Next Door (ghoulnextdoor.tumblr.com) and These Unquiet Things (unquietthings.com).
The Peculiar Parish Bookshop is proud to offer The Art of Darkness. These copies are new from the publisher.
Published by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of The Quarto Group (2022).
240-page hardcover book with color illustrations throughout.
