Lucian Freud

• Psychological portraiture

• Colours in skin tone (green, red and grey) exaggerated to make the figure look almost sickly

• Directness of portraits

• “introspection, detailed analysis of his facial expressions, and the emotions behind them” (WikiArt)

• the “unease” of the figure, commentary not just on his subject but on the “human condition” (WikiArt)

• Distortion of the figure in some way. emphasis of certain features, unapologetic examination of his subjects

Max Beckmann

• Distortion of the figure and of space

• Personal vision of himself as an artist and of humanity

• Influenced by experience of WWI

• Idea of spirituality in subject (Letters to a Woman Painter, 1948)

• Treatment of light and dark

• Cropping to highlight the psychological aspect of the portrait

Alberto Giacometti

• Existentialism

• Solitary figures

• The human experience/condition

• Distortion of the figure

• Extremely perfectionist and self-critical with his work

Gregory Crewdson

• Voyeurism, looking into a private scene/moment

• Sense of unease created by the stillness of the figures

• Intimacy of looking into the picture

• “Cathedral of the Pines", his later work which is “sombre, foreboding and inward-looking” (Guardian article)

• Meticulously staged images

• Almost cinema-like quality to the images in the controlled lighting, poses, and setting

David Lynch

• Exploration of dreamlike worlds, and the unconscious mind

• Use of lighting to create tension in a scene

• Distortion of reality, resulting in an uncanny feeling

• Repetition of situations

• The importance of the choice of seemingly insignificant objects to a scene

• Extremely stylised world, meticulously created

• Oppressive feeling throughout work, related to the feeling of fear the characters often experience

Stanley Kubrick

• Seeks to make his films look like paintings

• Very meticulous with every shot he takes

• Use of the one point perspective and symmetry to create visually appealing shots

• Use of the zoom in to create tension or to highlight a character’s mental state

• Recognisable style despite directing films in all genres imaginable

Nelson Diplexcito

• Former filmmaker and photographer

• Sources images from his own collection

• Strong interest in portraiture and in particular in the human gaze

• Use of cinematographic lighting in many paintings

• Idea of the face being the most important element

Edward Hopper

• Idea of solitude, solitary figures in vast landscapes

• The human experience

• Cinematography of paintings, in lighting and vastness of the frame (like a zoomed out shot)

• Interest in nighttime

• American life

• Interaction of humans with environment

• Notion of voyeurism, looking into an interior where someone is having a private moment

Sigmund Freud

• The “Uncanny” essay

• Notions of the unconscious mind

• Uncanny as something hidden that comes to light

• Something that produces a feeling of dread, an eerie feeling

• Something that looks too realistic and produces an uncanny feeling (like a wax doll), animate/inanimate

Francesca Woodman

• Dilapidated domestic interior

• Vulnerability and loneliness

• Disappearing into the material of the house

• Black and white photography

• Using herself as a model

Michael Borremans

• Closely cropped paintings

• Averted eyes of the subjects

• Muted colour palette

• Sense of internal struggle

• Being trapped in ones own thoughts

Joanna Piotrowska

• Ideas about intimacy and the relation to power struggles in the domestic space

• Staging gestures but with people who have a real life relationship

• Idea of roles we play

• Black and white as a way to take away the barrier between reality and fiction, and also as a way of documenting, or blending the tones to create a potentially more uncanny image

Ruozhe Xue

• Idea of the double

• Surreal imagery

• Oil painting

• Uncanny nature of the doppelganger theme

• Muted colour palette

Gregor Schneider

• Eerie domestic interior

• Idea of the double, the twinning of the houses

• Uncomfortable yet mundane domestic scenes

• Sense of being trapped in a home or in a cycle of behaviour

Paula Rego

• Distortion of the figure

• Family dynamics

• The female as Madonna but also conniving

• The home as the stage of family politics

• The uncanny or unheimlich

David Hockney

• Modern portraiture

• Loose brushstroke to simplify clothing

• Distortion of the hands

• Deconstruction of proportion and perspective

Alice Neel

• Portraits of a generation

• Distortion of the figure

• Simplification of features such as hands

• Sitting poses

• Ideas around femininity

Carl Jung

• The shadow self

• Integrating the shadow

• Dark side of the unconscious expressed through the shadow

• Unconscious slips into the conscious involuntarily

• Shadow work in helping couples

Yasmina Reza

• The God of Carnage

• Family dynamics

• Ideas of masculinity and femininity

• Roles we play out in a marriage

• The unconscious mind

• Repressed violence in society

• Responsibility of parenthood