Brilliant surreal designer-illustrator HR Giger dies, 12 April 2014.
HR Giger with a design for Alien Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
In connection with the new documentary JODOROWSKY'S DUNE, we were talking about the remarkable designs of H.R. Giber. He had an immense influence on surreal and sci-fi imagery in the film of the past Now he is gone, dead as the result of injuries suffered in a fall at home in Switzerland, at 74. He is particularly noted for his designs for the ALIEN films and BATMAN FOREVER, and for designs for recording artists and interior designs and computer games. He was an illustrator, painter, and sculptor. He acquired the Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland in the Eighties which has become a museum of his work. Giger's frightening, creepy biomorphic and mechanical imagery has left a lasting on the popular imagination, and its effect can be seen even in the tattoos on people's bodies. It's said that a major influence on his was Salvador Dalí. I have the feeling that He must have contributed to the design of BLADE RUNNER, but I can't find any acknowledgement of this. Didn't he? Lawrence G. Paull was production designer for BLADE RUNNER, with David Dryer.*
PORTFOLIO OF HR GIGER AND HIS WORK (GUARDIAN).
HR Giger, whose "biomechanical" artwork lent Ridley Scott's film Alien much of its terror, has died aged 74.
A spokesperson from his gallery in Switzerland confirmed the news. According to the Swiss press, he died from injuries sustained in a fall on stairs.
Born in 1940 in Chur, Switzerland, Giger studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich, before beginning a successful career in art and interior design from the mid-1960s onwards. Beginning with ink and oil paintings, he graduated to using an airbrush, which helped articulate his vivid, often disturbing style, characterised by dark sexuality and cyberpunk energy.
--THE GUARDIAN.At its essence, Giger's art digs down into our psyches and touches our very deepest primal instincts and fears. His work has always had a disturbing effect on me, as it has had on so many others. I find it ultimately transcends discussion as to what category of artist he may fall into. He is simply unique within the world in which he exists, and his art stands in a category of its own. The proof of this lies in the intensity of his work and imagination, which I can only compare to Hieronymus Bosch and Francis Bacon in their powers to provoke and disturb.--RIDLEY SCOTT.
Alien drawing by HR Giger Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar
*Design for BLADE RUNNER by Lawrence G. Paull and David Dryer:
This noirish dystopian future city is a gorgeous cinematic creation too.
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