# Weird/bizarre artists. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044 "2016-07-16T14:10:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/1 "2016-07-16T14:10:17Z")
Who’s the strangest artist? Most extreme? Marina Abramović? Salvador Dalí? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/2 "2016-07-16T14:17:24Z")
[Chris Burden’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden) work included being shot with a rifle, and being crucified to a VW Beetle. He worked in other media besides pain, but those were the ones that put him on the map in his early career. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/3 "2016-07-16T14:17:50Z")
Giger is up there somewhere. There’s another that does these weird post-impressionist-look scenes with grotesquely distorted bodies and young girls torturing bugs and so forth - can’t dredge up the name but it’s something like Pourmeyrol. Look sort of normal at first and the more you look, the more disturbing it gets. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/4 "2016-07-16T14:24:12Z")
Do you know what outsider art is? There are museums devoted to it. Once, years ago, a bunch of us Straight Dopers went to visit such a museum as a group: > **[Outsider art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art)** > > Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. > The term outsider art was coined in 1972 as the title of a book by art critic Roger Cardinal. It is an English equivalent for art brut (French: \[aʁ bʁyt\], "raw art" or "rough art"), a l... > **[American Visionary Art Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Visionary_Art_Museum)** > > Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}39°16′49″N 76°36′25″W / 39.28028°N 76.60694°W / 39.28028; -76.60694 > The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is an art museum located in Baltimore, Maryland's Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway. The museum specializ... > **[American Visionary Art Museum](https://www.avam.org/)** > > Welcome to the nation's museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry. > **[404 Error Page | AVAM](https://www.avam.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions.shtml)** ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/5 "2016-07-16T17:13:03Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Salvador Dalí? Not the strangest, but possibly the most famous for being strange. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/6 "2016-07-16T17:19:28Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Do you know what outsider art is? There are museums devoted to it. Stay away from Henry Darger. His shit still gives me nightmares. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/7 "2016-07-16T17:27:22Z")
Gustav Moreau, Fernand Khnopff, Otto Dix, Max Klinger, Alfred Kubin, Felicien Rops, Jan Toorop, Odilon Redon are a few of my favorite creators of bizarre imagery. I would never hang a Kubin or a Dix on my wall. Moreau is pretty enough that the Ukulele Lady allows framed reproductions of some of his portraits of _femmes fatales_: Salome, Cleopatra, and Delilah hang in our pad. Pick up a book on the Symbolist period of the late 19th century. Also, check out the Ten Dreams gallery online. > **[Ten Dreams Fine Art Galleries](http://www.tendreams.org/)** > > Fine Art galleries covering both contemporary and historical figurative art in the last 200 years. Specializing in Magic Realism and Symbolism. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/8 "2016-07-16T18:03:46Z")
Surrealism is fine. It’s Gilbert & George’s work I can’t relate too: Shit As Art. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/9 "2016-07-16T18:22:32Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Stay away from Henry Darger. His shit still gives me nightmares. Hey! Darger is one of my Outsider favorites! The inside of his head was clearly a very confused, lonely place and seeing his art helps me remember that we are all worthy of respect no matter our station in life. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/10 "2016-07-16T18:36:13Z")
A noble sentiment. If only he hadn’t had that creepy fixation on strangling little girls. In his paintings, I mean. He was never convicted in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/11 "2016-07-16T18:38:46Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > A noble sentiment. If only he hadn’t had that creepy fixation on strangling little girls. > > In his paintings, I mean. He was never convicted in real life. He was never charged with a crime in real life, either, btw. Or suspected of one, AFAIK. And I don’t recall any fixation on strangling little girls; what are you referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/12 "2016-07-16T19:23:05Z")
He was rumored to have something to do with the 1912 murder of little Elsie Paroubek in Chicago, which led to his obsession with her photograph and subsequent creation of the Vivian Girls, putting himself in the role of protector. I attended the first major Darger exhibit in New York in the 1990s, and the primary image I took away was the Glandilinian soldiers and officers throttling every prepubescent girl (some with penises, some with horns) they got their hands on. Purple faces and protruding tongues lovingly depicted. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/13 "2016-07-16T19:24:09Z")
I don’t believe you could see that, either, and not remember it. Were the shows you saw censored? (And NO, I am NOT googling any god damn images!) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/14 "2016-07-16T20:53:12Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > He was rumored to have something to do with the 1912 murder of little Elsie Paroubek in Chicago, which led to his obsession with her photograph and subsequent creation of the Vivian Girls, putting himself in the role of protector. As far as I can remember, he was not rumored or suspected in Elsie Paroubek’s death at the time it occurred; such speculation came about only after his death and his work was discovered. And such speculation and rumors depend on no actual facts at all, as far as I can tell. Do you have any facts that cause you to believe these to be true in any way? > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I attended the first major Darger exhibit in New York in the 1990s, and the primary image I took away was the Glandilinian soldiers and officers throttling every prepubescent girl (some with penises, some with horns) they got their hands on. Purple faces and protruding tongues lovingly depicted. I’m curious as to how you come to use the descriptor “lovingly”. I’ve seen much of his work and the fact that you would use the words you use to describe them and what you believe, with no facts, to be Darger’s intent and mindset when creating them is, frankly, kind of disturbing to me. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/15 "2016-07-16T22:24:10Z")
[Tiny Tim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Tim_(musician))? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/16 "2016-07-17T00:04:02Z")
**Snowboarder Bo** : This could be a very interesting and informative thread, and the two of us are running it right off the rails. ALL of Darger’s art was painstakingly constructed; that such a large chunk of it was of grown men choking little girls to death – yes, they are the BAD GUYS, but bleargghhhh, my GOD – is OBJECTIVELY disturbing, not a sign of pathology on my part. Send me a message if you want to continue this, okay? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/17 "2016-07-17T01:53:11Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Also, check out the Ten Dreams gallery online. > > [http://www.tendreams.org/](http://www.tendreams.org/) “This article is in the process of being revised. The target completion date is June 1, 2011.” I think I found my new internet home! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/18 "2016-07-17T03:48:00Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > “This article is in the process of being revised. The target completion date is June 1, 2011.” > > I think I found my new internet home! Really? Link works for me… Yep. Still works for me. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/19 "2016-07-17T04:08:49Z")
Wasn’t there a theory about Walter Sickert being Jack The Ripper? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2016, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044/20 "2016-07-17T05:32:30Z")
It would have been TOTALLY worth it. I love his paintings. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-bizarre-artists/760044.md?page=2)