# Recommend cold, sterile, vaguely menacing artwork **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195 "2011-07-07T16:04:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/41 "2011-07-08T05:30:01Z")
Try googling x ray art. There’s some neat stuff there that fits, and it’s interesting enough to be a conversation starter rather than a conversation killer for dates who see it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/42 "2011-07-08T05:42:43Z")
Well maybe some of [Richard Powers’ stuff](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Richard+Powers%22+artist&biw=1280&bih=535&tbm=isch&hl=en)will fill the bill … it can be cold, sterile and vaguely menacing one moment, and inspiring the next. Sometimes, both at the same time. The best science fiction art EVAH! ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/43 "2011-07-08T06:50:32Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > You are all highly cultured and deeply disturbed people. I greatly appreciate it. > > However, I just remembered that I intend to live in my apartment for some years - and, well, I’d kind of like to have sex here at some point. I don’t think that will happen if I take more than one or too of the tips offered here. I think I’m backing off my plan for a “lawful evil” decor scheme. Nooo. Don’t give up now :D. We have more suggestions: [Kvium](http://images.google.com/search?hl=da&q=michael%20kvium&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&biw=793&bih=791&tbm=isch), for instance, might fit the bill (though his work will probably ward off any chance of romance in your flat). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/44 "2011-07-08T07:09:48Z")
Well, I was going to suggest H.R. Giger, too, but I’m not sure he qualifies as “sterile”…his stuff always looked a bit squishy. Maybe some [early computer art](http://mysite.pratt.edu/~llaurola/cg550/cg.htm)? Some of [Ken Knowlton’s non-portrait stuff](http://www.google.com/search?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&q=Ken%20Knowlton,%20art&biw=1551&bih=657) seems to fit the bill. If you want “sterile” AND “menacing,” maybe some old fascist or communist [propaganda](http://www.allworldwars.com/Soviet-Anti-War-Posters.html) [posters](http://www.sovietposters.com/), if they’re stylized enough, but especially if they’re of a seemingly innocuous subject or motivation until you look a little closer. [This one](http://www.allworldwars.com/image/101/peace012.jpg)’s always been a favorite of mine, though anything with a smiling art deco guy with dead eyes should do the trick. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/45 "2011-07-08T12:14:53Z")
I thought I didn’t really like art…turns out I like it fine if it’s creepy enough. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/46 "2011-07-08T13:59:55Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Try googling x ray art. There’s some neat stuff there that fits, and it’s interesting enough to be a conversation starter rather than a conversation killer for dates who see it. 😛 At a nearby medical clinic, for Halloween one year they made a “skeleton” on the wall out of old X-rays of different parts of the body, every one with something horrible having happened to it. Broken bones, scissor impalement, growths…it was one huge injury horrorshow that no single human could have borne. It was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/47 "2011-07-08T14:04:01Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > At a nearby medical clinic, for Halloween one year they made a “skeleton” on the wall out of old X-rays of different parts of the body, every one with something horrible having happened to it. Broken bones, scissor impalement, growths…it was one huge injury horrorshow that no single human could have borne. It was awesome. Woah. I’d love to see that. I saw something similar at the Hunterian Museum (the collection of the Royal Society of Physicians in London, England - highly recommended for those interested in the grotesque). Though a sculpture rather than an xray. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/48 "2011-07-08T14:40:07Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Woah. I’d love to see that. > > I saw something similar at the Hunterian Museum (the collection of the Royal Society of Physicians in London, England - highly recommended for those interested in the **grotesque** ). Though a sculpture rather than an xray. [Here](http://articulomortis.tumblr.com/), have at it. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/49 "2011-07-08T14:57:16Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > [Here](http://articulomortis.tumblr.com/), have at it. That leads to an error. Can you fix the link? Curious, me? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/50 "2011-07-08T15:08:39Z")
A [photographer friend of mine](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerken/2591182_Photography.html) is one of the many people specializing in photographing empty, derelict houses and the stuff people just left there. her pictures are delicate, beautiful, strong, and incredibly lonely, cold and sad. Several of her pictures have been made into dustjackets. Here are some examples. [A swan landing on water](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/14742098_Walking+on+water.html) [Cross on windowsill](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/14981699_Off+the+cross.html) [A bed](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/12340468_The+servant%27s+bed.html) [Empty interior](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/13826261_Asleep+in+the+back.html) She even managed to make a picture of me, [when I was eight months pregnant](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/12340541_Pregnant.html), into something saddish. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/51 "2011-07-08T15:23:12Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > That leads to an error. Can you fix the link? > > Curious, me? You can just google “articulomortis”. I was just browsing the site a few minutes ago and now my book mark is giving me the same error page; I think Tumbler is having a problem at the moment; when they sort it out my orig link should work. Enough images there to keep you occupied for days.. some images make you re-think about your mortality in much matter-of-fact reality. It’s one of those _I can’t believe I’m looking at these pictures but I can’t stop_ kind. Note: hover over the image to make them clear. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/52 "2011-07-08T15:26:11Z")
[I don’t know how “vaguely” it is.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Cheney_2005_official_portrait.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/53 "2011-07-08T15:35:28Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > [Here](http://articulomortis.tumblr.com/), have at it. Hey, great stuff! 😃 In return, here’s some images from the Hunterian Collection (warning, grotesque): [http://static.forskning.no/00/20/25/46/Hunterian\_Syphilitic\_skull\_from\_Hunterian\_Collection.jpgNone.full.jpg](http://static.forskning.no/00/20/25/46/Hunterian_Syphilitic_skull_from_Hunterian_Collection.jpgNone.full.jpg) [http://www.toimg.net/managed/images/10170269/w482/h298/image.jpg](http://www.toimg.net/managed/images/10170269/w482/h298/image.jpg) [http://www.immortalitymedicine.tv/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e02dc\_anatomicaltheatre73.jpg](http://www.immortalitymedicine.tv/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e02dc_anatomicaltheatre73.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/54 "2011-07-08T16:18:31Z")
Thanks, **brittekland!** Cold and sterile, but utterly beautiful: [snow flakes.](http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm) I ordered a poster from that site and enjoyed it very much untill it got damaged in a house move. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/55 "2011-07-08T16:38:00Z")
Along the lines of the Hunterian Collection, there’s a book called _Dissection: Photographs of a rite of passage in American medicine 1880-1930,_ which features vintage (late 19th, early 20th century) photos of medical school students dissecting human cadavers…and, aside from “class photos,” sometimes posing the (often skinned or already very dissected) bodies in funny ways, like propping them up around a table to make it look like they’re dissecting a student, or playing cards, etc. [Samples and links to samples here!](http://www.artofbleeding.com/blog/?p=2818) (Obvious warning: Contains creepy photos of graphically mangled corpses in amusingly creepy poses) ---
**Author:** ![Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d9b06d/32.png) [@Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichini_Sanshigo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/56 "2011-07-08T16:53:15Z")
Probably not very sterile, but the guy who does [Romantically Apocalyptic](http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com) has a deviant art store with prints of various prices: [http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/prints/](http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/prints/) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/57 "2011-07-09T02:21:32Z")
When I think of sterile **and** menacing, all I think of is architecture. Anything with a living element to it rules out sterile for me. So I think of things like this: > **[The Marsden Archive :: The Picture Library](http://www.marsdenarchive.com/library/preview.php?id=00000147)** > > The Marsden Archive is a specialist picture library featuring Simon Marsden's unique black and white infrared photographs of the fantastic and the supernatural. Including images of haunted houses, gothic graveyards, romantic ruins and eerie ghosts. [![](http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/gotham-2.jpg) ](http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/gotham-2.jpg) [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/2352/2486394710_b2e025882c_b.jpg "Menacing medieval") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/archidave/2486394710/) ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/58 "2011-07-09T03:21:36Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > She even managed to make a picture of me, [when I was eight months pregnant](http://paintingsbyinekekamps.exto.nl/kunstwerk/12340541_Pregnant.html), into something saddish. Wow, I like that! I don’t see it as sad, unless you go into it thinking that. It’s almost a paean to the long-term endurance a pregnancy wrests of you whether you think you are up to it or not. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195/59 "2011-07-14T02:12:37Z")
Speaking of menacing architecture, how about [this line drawing](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/opinion/06zorpette.html?WT.mc_id=OP-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M209-ROS-0711-PH&WT.mc_ev=click)? The oppressive sun, the coil of wires… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-cold-sterile-vaguely-menacing-artwork/588195.md?page=2)