Boris Artzybasheff: Monstrous Anthropomorphised Machines
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
Boris Artzybasheff was a Russian-born illustrator who moved to the United States in 1919. He illustrated books prior to World War II when he was an adviser to the Psychological Warfare Branch of the U.S. State Department. After WWII he did mostly commercial work, as well as many illustrations for magazines such as Time, Life, and Fortune.
The Wikipedia article on him does a fine job of describing his visual style:
“His graphic style is striking, to put it mildly. In his commercial work he explored grotesque experiments in anthropomorphism, where toiling machines displayed distinctly human personalities. In his personal work, he explored the depiction of vivid and extreme ranges of human psychology and emotion.”
“Striking” is putting it mildly. If I had to describe his work I think I would describe it as being that of a twentieth century Hieronymus Bocsh. There are three separate galleries, and almost every image is a winner, so make sure to look through them all.
Artzybasheffs Diablerie [ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive] : MONSTER BRAINS
Categories: Artists, Illustration, Surrealism, Russia, Advertising, Propaganda, Art
Posted at 4:11 pm on September 28, 2007
3 Comments -
[…] Boris Artzybasheff: Monstrous Anthropomorphised Machines: “Striking” is putting it mildly. If I had to describe his work I think I would describe it as being that of a twentieth century Hieronymus Bocsh. There are three separate galleries, and almost every image is a winner, so make sure to look through them all.” […]
Pingback by The Curio » Monstrous Anthropomorphised Machines — September 28, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
These really remind me of the animated segments in The Wall, though quick looks through Google, Wikipedia, and Everything2 don’t turn up any connection. Still, given the timing and subject matter of Artzybasheff’s work, it seems unlikely that Pink Floyd wasn’t influenced at least a little, even if it was not deliberate.
Comment by chesh — September 29, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
[…] featured the work of Boris Artzybasheff before but ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive recently put up some new scans from his book As I See, from […]
Pingback by ECTOPLASMOSIS! » Neurotica — May 1, 2008 @ 3:17 pm