The Dark Art Movement has existed since time immemorial. This genre of art is dark-themed, packed with grim or ghastly paintings. Through these paintings, artists usually described the unspeakable side of themselves which was not always pleasant. Deeply-rooted in these paintings were their hidden fears and demons.
Horror and Death are two concepts that have always fascinated humankind. This dark-themed art through paintings and sculptures created by famous artists dates back to the period of the Renaissance. Religion and classical mythology have always been a source of inspiration for such dark paintings. These paintings were known to bring to light the horrors of human life and imagination.
Blake Paul Neubert is one such artist whose style of painting falls into the category of dark art or horror surrealism. An American painter, illustrator, and writer based in Colorado, US, he focuses on figurative paintings. With a bachelor’s degree in art education, he pursued work as an elementary school art teacher only to leave it a year later to focus on his artwork.
He creates portraits that are fascinated by the complex nature of truth, substance abuse and mental illness. These creations are known to reflect darkness that is personified by emphasising on some specific facial features. Blake stunningly blurs out the facial features like the mouth and eyes and accentuates them. He paints strange paintings under a normal portrait and then scrapes off a layer of paint to uncover what’s underneath it. This forms the climax of his paintings that gives people a slice of his artistic imagination coupled with a morbid sense of humour.
Benjamin Bjorklundis-a Swedish artist and Blake are the founders of Death of a Coworker, a project where different artists create self-portraits of other artists involved and who are part of this project group. They came together with their shared working experience of mental health and criminal justice. All the artists in this project have a different approach and style of art, united by the idea of growing amongst like-minded artists. (https://www.instagram.com/death_of_a_coworker/)
People who know Blake Neubert understand his style of art for the message and imagination he displays. Behind the many faces that we see is another face that carries stories of despair, sorrow and a mind of other possibilities that may not always be pleasant.
We at One Page Spotlight have a thriving community of artists called Of Art and Artists who share their work displaying different genres of art. To know more about this community, you can follow them here.
