Giger on Bosch

leading from

H R Giger's Art

a) Childhood responses to Bosch

 Bosch was a very strong influence on Giger. When he first saw the drawings of Hieronymous Bosch, for him it was like seeing photographs of Hell, very much as with the effect that the illustrations for a Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear" on him, but as a child, the Bosch images would make him so angry that he would become afraind and sometimes have to sleep between his parents.

b) Bosch's biomechanic concept

In reflection of his biomechanics concept that he would come to develop later in life, he could point out  the fact out that his Bosch's paintings there are combinations of animals and machines, which were strange biomechanical monsters

Source Quotes

1. HR Giger: Well, Bosch was very strong for me. It was real, it would make me so angry that I would become afraid. Sometime I would have to sleep between my parents.  (Interview with Debbie Harry and Christ Stein, Rolling Stone)
2. HR Giger: In Bosch paintings there are combinations of machines and animals, strange biomechanical monsters. (International Tattoo Art Feb 1995)
3. ITA: Did you see things in the dark?
   HR Giger: Oh, yes. All kinds of things. There were certain stories that made strong impressions on me. My mother always told me this one story about a person who went out to learn to conquer their fear. It was a fairy tale, probably a Hans Christian Andersen story. Horrible people, freaks. They were bowling with bones and skulls. Later on when I read the book myself, and I came nearer to the page where he illustration was, I couldn't look at it. It was the same when I first saw the drawings of Hieronymus Bosch. For me, they were like photographs of hell.   (International Tattoo Art Feb 1995) (Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales includes The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear which involves bowling with bones and skulls)