Art and the word ‘Grotesque’

By: Dahlia Labatte

I would describe myself as enjoying challenging art, scary art, art that not everyone can digest or enjoy, art that examines things we see as unfit to be in the public light. To describe this work, we often come across the word ‘grotesque.’ A word that I find visually beautiful simply in the way it’s spelled, and a word that in art has an incredibly interesting history and modern impact.

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1962

Hieronymus Bosch, Detail of Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505

Where does the word ‘grotesque’ come from?

Rome, approximately 1500, the Domus Aurea, also called the Golden House of Nero, was cleared out after Nero’s death. The underground levels were left unknown until the Renaissance, when they were rediscovered by chance. Along every surface were perfectly preserved Roman frescos. The frescos pictured combinations of cherubs, various plants and animals. Connected with various adornments of chain, and bows, the symmetrical and wonderous tapestries of frescos covered the walls and ceilings. Renaissance artists like Raphael visited the Domus Aurea to copy and use those motifs in their work. Because of the locations – underground grottoes, they were called ‘grotesques.’ ‘Grotesque painting’, even today, when the word is not being used as an adjective, it is used to reference imitations of the Roman wall decoration. When it’s used as an adjective, describing something as grotesque has now evolved to mean something with an “odd or unnatural shape, in appearance, or characters; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.” Although the word does seem to have deeper depths than just that, which we will be exploring.

Challenging our ideas of grotesque art

Feminism and Womanhood

When the feminine body has been the subject of laws, politics, and has been depicted and the sorceress, the seductress, the prostitute – the act of distorting and changing the human form becomes an act of resistance and taking back control. The grotesque becomes almost inherently associated with the feminine.

Jane Euler, (Body (Black Void)), 2017

Trans, Disabled, and Fat Bodies

              The idea of the edited and butchered body can often play into the idea of the ‘perfect’ or ‘normal’ body, which can alienate and discriminate against trans, fat, and visually disabled people. It is important to note that these conversations are very different because the discrimination trans people face has a different foundation than the discrimination disabled people face, and same with fat people; transphobia, ableism, and fatphobia. Though, they are similar when we begin to discuss and show fat, trans and disabled bodies, and subsequently that creates discomfort. Showing bodies that society deems less than, or that subvert what we think of as beauty, especially in art, can often be described as ‘grotesque.’

              I’d like to challenge this idea. The existence and display of a body that we are not used to seeing does not make it more grotesque, deformed, odd, shocking, or whatever word you might hear used. The deliberate distortion or flesh and the human form in art, needs to be differentiated from the simple portrayal of bodies that just aren’t seen often in art or as fitting current beauty standards.

Colleen Barry, Nexus Study, 2020

Maisie Cousins, Rubbish, Dipping Sause, Grass, Peonie, Bum, 2020