Artist of the Week #3: Hans Rudolf Giger

This week I’ll show the work of Hans Rudolf Giger. Hans was born on 1940, in Switzerland, and studied architecture and industrial design at the Zürich Kunstgewerbeschule (Zurich School of Applied Arts). He worked as an interior designer for a while, but soon he started to work fulltime as an artist. He began producing some works with airbrush on the 70’s, and was considered one of the best doing that at that time.

Giger between two of his sculptures.
Giger between two of his sculptures.

It was then he started to work on the concept art, sculpting and set design of some freakish little movie.  Giger, my fellows, is nothing less than the Alien’s father.

A scene from the "Alien" movie
A scene from the "Alien" movie

Giger’s style is unique. He is a master on the manipulation of forms to cause sensations, almost always unexpected sensations… He can create structures which are simultaneously frightening and beautiful, and even comforting… Many times mixing terror with sensuality, which is not the most unfrequent thing to see, neither the hardest thing to do… But with the softness and beauty of Giger, only him can do…

Necronom V
Necronom V
Erotomechanics VII
Erotomechanics VII
N. Y. City II
N. Y. City II
Biomechanoid
Biomechanoid

Today it is possible to find furniture, guitars and even whole bars builded under the “gigerian” aesthetics, which is so easy to recognize and at the same time it’s so rich.

One of the Ibanez guitar models designed by Giger
One of the Ibanez guitar models designed by Giger
Giger-Bar in Chur, Switzerland
Giger-Bar in Chur, Switzerland

Giger manages to be an icon of  both academic art and pop art. If you want to know a litte more about this visual arts’ legend, take a look at his site.

Until next week, and I hope you’re liking this series of posts. I’ve been loving it myself, I always learn a lot while I make searches to write them =).

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