Existential Art

also: Existentialist art

aesthetic mid-20th century Europe United States

Existential art is not an organized movement but a sensibility - art made under the shadow of existentialist philosophy, above all in the years after the Second World War, when thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus made alienation, absurdity and freedom central questions. In paint and sculpture this becomes the lone, often attenuated human figure set in a bare or hostile space, rendered with an agitated or eroded surface. Alberto Giacometti's standing men, thinned almost to disappearance, and Francis Bacon's screaming, boxed figures are its emblematic images. The look spread widely because it matched the mood of a continent that had seen the camps and the bomb: existence reduced to a body, a room and dread.

Artificial Intelligence could be an existential threat to humanity. But it can also be the start of a prosperous and inclusive future. The a
Artificial Intelligence could be an existential threat to humanity. But it can also be the start of a prosperous and inclusive future. The aCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: tamingtheaibeast.org) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Isolated, attenuated or distorted figures facing an empty or enclosing space
  • Agitated, eroded or raw surfaces that register psychological strain
  • Muted, earthy palettes broken by harsh accents
  • Themes of alienation, anxiety, absurdity and mortality
  • Reduction of the scene to bare essentials: figure, ground, tension

Key figures

  • Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) — Sculptor of gaunt standing figures that embody postwar solitude
  • Francis Bacon (1909-1992) — Painter of screaming, caged figures and existential violence

Example works

  • Man Pointing — Alberto Giacometti (1947)
  • Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion — Francis Bacon (1944)

Sources

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