Ugliness in Art

[trash panda]

How do you capture ugliness in art? I don't mean ugly Renaissance babies or portraits of "ugly" people. (See references below).

I mean, really aesthetically pleasing faces can belong to ugly people so how would you portray a person's inner fugliness in art?

I'm asking for reasons.

 

[Ghost X]

Do you mean ugly personalities? It's all in the expression, ain't it. A person's beautiful face can only do so much to hide the inner ugliness . Take for example: Martin Shkreli, Ted Cruz, and Stephen Miller . In Shkreli's trial, they had difficulty finding a jury, because people wanted to punch the guy just by looking at him . Resting dick face, where the person is actually a dick .

 

[looneymoon]

What do you mean by ugliness? I think that you could look at the horror genre as a whole as an exploration of ugliness - be it physical ugliness, or the ugliness of the human condition and all that. When it comes to paintings, depiction of horrific images changes with the time depending on predominant painting styles of the time, and with what people generally found scary at that point of time.

I remember back when I was in university I was reading a lot of war time novels that may touch on what you might be thinking of. WW2 literature really focusses on issues of psychological brutality in the midst of extreme graphic violence. All Quiet on the Western Front, It was the War of the Trenches, etc.

I'm kinda shooting in the dark as to what kind of answer you might be looking for with this question. Are you referring specifically to paintings, or are you thinking of art as a general term? Because that's a very broad category.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Otto Dix and George Grosz were two painters of ugliness in Germany between the wars. Hitler would have called it degenerate art.

 

[Clement Rage]

My guess? Focus on details that are normally not highlighted. The inside of their mouth, in more detail than usual. Inside their nose. Bad teeth leave a strong impression. Fingernails. Look at political cartoons, that always exaggerate people's worst aspects.

Or you could should show them kicking puppies.

 

[HylianMogget]

Do you mean like in a pretty on the outside, ugly on the inside kind of sense? Like with what Ghost said, a subtle sort of expression could be a way get a sort of internal ugliness across - like Stephen Miller in that photo has that dead eyes type thing going on, or how a insincere smile (smiling mouth, neutral eyes) can be unsettling.

Perhaps atmosphere/colors/lighting could be a way to go about it, as well. Maybe these elements could be used to create a slightly "off" mood even when a face isn't conventionally "ugly"? That's probably an easier said than done kind of thing, though.

Maybe symbolism? But I suppose that that can get heavy-handed, and would hinge on the viewer knowing how to interpret the symbolic things instead of a sort of more visceral reaction.

 

[looneymoon]

also relevant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/bad-ideas/jail-inmates-tortured-with-bob-zemeckis-animation-32604.html

 

[Cthulhu]

There's this new movie out with the err, anime eyed girl; also in the weird uncanny valley area, I mean at first glance it's a pretty girl (especially if you're used to video games / anime / etc), but then you realize there's something not quite right.

Also, the Innsmouth look.

Spoiler

okay so that last one wasn't shooped