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H.R. Giger, Alien Artist and Designer, Dead at Age 74
M3.14 writes: "H. R. Giger, the Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, has died, aged 74. Hans Rudolf 'Ruedi' Giger sustained injuries caused by a fall, Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung has reported (link in German — English summary available). The terrifying creature and sets he created for Ridley Scott's film earned him an Oscar for special effects in 1980. In the art world, Giger is appreciated for his wide body of work in the fantastic realism and surrealistic genres. Film work was just one of his talents. Giger is also known for his sculptures, paintings and furniture. The H.R. Giger Museum, inaugurated in the summer of 1998 in the Château St. Germain, is a four-level building complex in the historic, medieval walled city of Gruyères. It is the permanent home to many of the artist's most prominent works."
Rest in Peace, creepy-as-hell man...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I suspect Geiger can appreciate one more morbid, vaguely phallic shape as he's laid to rest.
A moment of silence please. I can't think of another artist who's had such a profound visual influence on sci-fi culture.
"I'll pedal a bicycle made out of nightmares, straight up your ass"
--H.R. Giger, Probably.
Good people go to bed earlier.
It's a terrible day... the last non-hack artist involved in horror fiction and sci-fi has passed on. While Giger isn't taken too seriously in the fine art world he's certainly worthy of their attention. Too bad he'll likely be mostly remembered as a graphic pop artist.
Rest well, old boy.
I first really encountered Giger's art when I was collecting the Taschen "Basic Art" series of short full-colour introductions to various artists. There's a Giger one. Frankly, I think him fairly mediocre as an artist for traditional gallery exhibition. Limited range and repetitive concerns. However, he definitely made an incredible contribution to film (and LP cover art)
I do wonder how long his popularity will last after his death. He started making an institution of himself early, and there is a Giger museum in Switzerland. However, Vasarely for example did the same four decades ago and interest in him has collapsed greatly.
Syd Mead dude! I can think of one other artist. Hrrrrm... And Ralph McQuarrie.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I bet his his tombstone will be awesome.
AdFuel
BTW, did they ever recover the original Giger cover art for ELP's Brain Salad Surgery album?
Have gnu, will travel.
I was sad to hear this...we've lost a great artist and designer...also: who will unscrupulous scifi concept artists going copy off of now?
Thank you Dave Raggett
H.R. Geiger had a lot to do with the Fredirico De Laurentis / David Lynch version of Dune made in 1984... The beautiful set work he did on that movie was amazing, not really his darker stuff, but I could see his "organic" look in the designs of the Guild Navigators, the design of Shadaam IV's throne room space ship and the really amazing cool set design on Castle Caladan. Sand-worms and the Fremen Sietches too. I think that the Sy Fy version of Dune and Children of Dune were good but the set designs were pale comparisons to the David Lynch work. Sadly the David Lynch version took far too many creative liberties with the original story that the Sy Fy version followed the original closely on so the latter was better, but the first had a look that has not been repeated since.
I have a lot of prints of H.R. Geiger's work and he inspired me in a lot of the abstract drawing I did in art class in high school. He was like an uber gothic version of MC Escher. I totally loved his work. He will be missed. There is now a larger empty space in my black little heart.
Vincent's Crows are swooping around his head. :-(
I had a long phase where if I was going to have a nightmare, it typically involved having a xenomorph coming straight at me and my pulse rifle being out of ammo. I'm serious. The nightmares were rare, but seemed to correspond with days when I was feeling impotent to deal with some life problem.
You have to give it to him, his art was effective.
I took my online name from his Necronom IV painting. His Alien, Derelict, and many other designs are some of my favourites in film history. His work was truly original. No-one else's work I've seen is as quite as disturbing, original, and amazing as his. I've been a fan since I first saw the films. A sad loss.
And, Moebius, Chris Foss, Derek Meddings. I know that last one might generate some controversy, as Derek's known more as a special effects guy, but his designs for vehicles (particularly for Gerry Anderson productions) were 30 years ahead of their time.
Still, gonna miss Mr. Creepy. Giger did some incredible work, especially for the Dune film that never got made.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
When the Jello Biafra was on trial for distributing "Harmful Matter," it was because a poster of Giger's "Penis Landscape" was included in the Frankenchrist LP (Jello Biafra actually wanted to use it as the album cover, but his bandmates rejected that idea).
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
You don't need a penis-shaped bicycle, just a bicycle made out of nightmares shoving up through your sphincter. If that's not penile fantasy, I don't know what is.
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
Into darkness sink all images;
God paints on the cavas of life once more.
Standing armored to fight with crest and shield,
Meanwhile the enemy blackens the field.
And the heards are dying of thirst below the blazing suns,
The ice cliff walls now flow into a little brook hissing
Into the earth, and you are fishing
Where there are no fish.
Then into the fiery abyss you dive
Where, trembling, you find that the dead are alive.
In a hell where they horribly change and swirl
As around Gorgo's head they unfurl.
Tortured, the broken eye
Stares down into hell's bubbling lye.
Your body, plowed through with the furrow of the worm,
Torn is the shell of your tower, once firm,
Struck down by a bolt of fire
As you drown in the hellish mire.
You to the surf, God calls
To the surf that breaks on His kingdom's massive walls
Where blocks that shine as the sun so fair
Shelter his original human pair.
Redeeming from His blood a new form and shape
An image that only God can create.
Into darkness sink all images,
God paints on the canvas of life.
Ernst Fuchs, Venice 1984
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This is really sad. I had the privilege of seeing the original Alien prop up close at a special exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany. It was a lot more than what we got a glimpse of in the movie. It had an "industrial" look and feel, quite different from the sleek Aliens in the later films. Giger experimented a lot with sexual references and the genitalia. The Alien's elongated head is a phallic reference. The alien eggs originally had a single slot on top that looked like a vulva, that he later changed into a double slot in order to make it less obvious. His work was plainly awesome and it is sad that he was not commissioned in the other films of the Alien series.
I hope he's gone to his personal heaven...
Because I quail from imagining what his hell might look like.
I can see the fnords!
Oh, I dunno. How long has Mark Rothko's influence / popularity lasted?
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I need a face hug to console myself.
In fact, I'm also feeling sick in my stomach.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Hopefully his dreams weren't haunted by imagery as strange as his paintings.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Alas. Those wall calendars were fantastic.
Best wishes in whatever comes next and thanks for the freaky art.
While most of you remember him from aliens fame, Darkseed was inspirational for me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
The Giger theme was the reason I installed E in the late 90s. It's too bad the theme was never updated for the later versions of Enlightenment.