Art That Goes Bump in the Night
About
While Felix, our giant, household cat, created by Maurizio Cattelan, may not strike fear into your heart, in anticipation of Halloween we asked MCA staff members and the public for suggestions on artworks that make their skin crawl. Below are our top picks.
Janet Wolski, Assistant to the Director
“American Horror Story: Freakshow has got nothing on us!”
Leah Singsank, Assistant Registrar
“I discovered this artist through a friend from grad school—a photo specialist interested in post-mortem photography. We ended up fast friends because I, too, have a penchant for the bizarre, though for me, the bizarre was more firmly rooted in cabinets of curiosity and 18th-century phantasmagoria.
Long story short, this friendship led to my introduction to the work of Joel-Peter Witkin. This guy is just bizonkers. For me, his work is the intersection of a 1920s traveling circus and a mad-man's cabinet of curiosity. When I look at his works, I am transported to a tiny room in the back of an immaculate Victorian house. Past the silver. Past the stuffed, much beloved hunting dog. Past the creepy family portrait of a long-dead, little-loved aunt. Past the library. Behind the heavy wooden door. Here I find a room bursting with photographs of dismembered and reattached people. Photographs haphazardly hanging from the walls by nails next to others delicately framed, or laying stacked one on top of the other, waiting patiently to be catalogued like the others . . . you see it too, right? Or, maybe I just have watched too much TV during my formative years.”
Hiba Ali, Visitor Services Associate
“When I first saw Ivan Albright's Into the World There Came A Soul Called Ida (1929–30) I was in high school. To this day, I remember the haunting image that was etched into my memory. The painting is meant as a reminder that life is impermanent. It also reminds us that dramatic lighting can completely change the way one is perceived. When we look at each other in the daytime we don't see the shadows under and around our skin, these blotches that Albright outwardly depicts. Ida Rogers—the woman portrayed in this painting—looks into the mirror, recalling her beauty. She prompts us to think about the weight of time, its effects on the body, and the impermanence of life.”
Ruth Suttie Gauss, via Facebook
“Janitor at the Milwaukee Art Museum was so realistic, it would really bother me to be in the same space with him!”
About
National Veterans Art Museum, via Facebook:* “Derek Brunen's Plot, six hours of a man digging his own grave—quite chilling!”
Honorable Mention
Molly Fitzharris, via Facebook:
“Tony Oursler pops up in my nightmares quite a bit”