MetaFilter posts tagged with illustration and surrealism

the foreign exchange student

dhruva — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:26:15 -0800

The foreign exchange student "Some years ago we had a foreign exchange student come to live with us. We found it very difficult to pronounce his name correctly, but he didn’t mind. He told us just to call him 'Eric'." A short story in pictures by Shaun Tan. Previously.

J.J. Grandville

mediareport — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:08:16 -0800

Very odd illustrations from caricaturist J.J. Grandville's 1868 book L'Exposition de l'Avenir. More oddities from 1829's Les Métamorphoses Du Jour (some in color here), and lots of delightful garden scenes from his 1847 classic Les Fleurs Animees (vol 1, vol 2). Some consider Grandville one of the earliest proto-surrealists. [more Grandville links in this great post at BibliOdyssey]

Illustrations by Ben Tolman

Gator — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 18:41:33 -0800

Ink drawings by Ben Tolman: Huge, intricate, somewhat NSFW. There may be an issue with the side frame not scrolling in Firefox; if this is the case, click here, here, here, and here to see the galleries.

The Outlandish Art of Mahlon Blaine

PinkStainlessTail — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 04:25:36 -0800

The Outlandish Art of Mahlon Blaine. The highlight for me was Nova Venus.
A short biography of Blaine.
Another smaller gallery, which includes illustrations he did for translations of the works of Hanns Heinz Ewers.
[Many/most images on all pages NSFW]

Glen Baxter's surrealist cartoons

.kobayashi. — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:14:55 -0800

His entire oeuvre soon began to attract the attention of the leading New York art critics: The weird world of Glen Baxter

Denizens of New Crobuzon?

taz — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 04:40:38 -0800

Wonderfully surreal. Five galleries of (literally) fantastic, mostly figurative images by Maggie Taylor. Serendipity has me reading Perdido Street Station at the moment, and these quaintly eerie portraits seem almost as though they could have been plucked from Miéville's mythic population of bizarre Remades, uncanny constructs and outlandish alien races. Beautiful. (Click the eye.)

The Princess of Wax - a Cruel Tale

taz — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 04:01:29 -0800

"A wicked noblewoman presides over a decadent court of masked revelers. The most beautiful of waxen automatons is brought to life by a sorceress, her very heart hiding a deadly secret. And then love triumphs, if but for a single moment, before a sudden and terrifying finale. This is the bizarre world of The Princess of Wax".

Limned by descriptors such as "sinister", "ravishing" and "decadent", illustrated by a noted French surrealist painter, and inspired by a real-life fantastical figure, "The Princess of Wax - a Cruel Tale" (web site here), promises to be a satisfyingly twisted modern addition to the cherished fairy tale genre. More >>>

these are not your mother's wide-eyed waifs

taz — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 04:39:05 -0800

Mark Ryden is to the iconic saucer-eyed urchins of the '60s as Salvador Dali is to Hickory Dickory Dock. His delicate palette, fine details and classical references offer compelling counterpoint to the deliciously disturbing imagery of les tykes terrible in collections such as "Blood: Miniature Paintings of Sorrow & Fear"; "Bunnies and Bees: Paintings Created to Illustrate DIVINE TRUTH in Accordance with the Secret Principles of SCIENCE AND SOUL"; and "The Meat Show: Paintings about Childen, God, and USDA Grade A Beef". Plus, they're kids - with big eyes!

madamjujujive — Sun, 20 Oct 2002 05:28:04 -0800

La Speranza - take a surrealistic Sunday stroll through Viennese artist Luigi La Speranza's gallery of illustrations, watercolors, paintings and sculptures.