HR Giger

from Scheidegger & Spiess Catalogue Spring 2023

Hedi Mertens

The Oeuvre Before Alien 1961–1976

New edition of the only book published to date on the multifaceted early work of celebrated Swiss artist and designer HR Giger (1940–2014)

Features numerous works by HR Giger that have rarely been published or put on public display

Highlights relations of HR Giger’s art to that of distinguished precursors, such as Piranesi, Goya, Fuseli, Klinger, and Ensor

HR Giger (1940–2014) remains one of the outstanding figures in Swiss art and design history. He achieved international fame in 1979 for designing the fantastic creatures and eerie environments that terrified moviegoers in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Alien. Yet, before these iconic creations made him a celebrity and won him an Academy Award for visual effects, Giger was already highly regarded in the international art world of the 1960s and 1970s, for taking one of the most independent positions in the succession of Surrealism.

First published in 2007, this only book to date on HR Giger’s early work features a comprehensive collection of his drawings, early airbrush paintings, and designs for oppressive environments. It examines Giger’s art from its origins and places it in an art history of horror. Most of the works shown in this volume are only rarely on public display. Here they are presented in dialogue with works by distinguished precursors such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco de Goya, Henry Fuseli, Max Klinger, and James Ensor.

Beat Stutzer is a Lucerne based art historian, writer, and curator. He served as director of the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur from 1982–2011 and as curator of the Segantini Museum in St. Moritz from 1998–2016.