Horror vacui

In visual art, horror vacui (a fear of empty spaces) is the filling of the entire surface of an artwork with ornamental details, figures, shapes, lines and anything else the artist might envision. It may be considered the opposite of minimalism.

Related Topics:
Visual art - Minimalism

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Many examples of horror vacui in art come from, or are influenced by, the mentally unstable and inmates of psychiatric hospitals, and fall under the category of Outsider Art. The term is associated with the Italian critic and scholar Mario Praz, who used it to describe the suffocating atmosphere and clutter of interior design in the Victorian age. Older examples can be seen on barbaric objects such as the Viking ship at Sutton Hoo or the Ruthwell Cross.

Related Topics:
Mentally unstable - Psychiatric hospitals - Outsider Art - Italian - Critic - Mario Praz - Victorian age - Barbaric - Viking ship - Sutton Hoo - Ruthwell Cross

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Horror vacui may have also had an impact, consciously or unconsciously, on graphic design by artists like David Carson, Vaughan Oliver and tomato and in the underground comix movement in the work of S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, and Robert Williams, and on later comic artists such as Mark Beyer.

Related Topics:
Graphic design - David Carson - Vaughan Oliver - Underground comix - S. Clay Wilson - Robert Crumb - Robert Williams - Mark Beyer

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