Hans Rudolf Giger is a Swiss painter and sculptor who is best known for his design of the alien from the successful 1979 film Alien, and his unique art style. H. R. Giger was born February 5, 1940 in Chur, Switzerland to a middle class family. In 1962, Giger studied architecture and industrial design at The School of Applied Arts in Zurich until 1970. His first ink drawings and painting got him noticed and he started his first solo exhibition in 1966. Afterwards, Giger started to use the airbrush and he developed his own unique painting style with it. Giger’s style involves disturbing fetishistic sexual imagery and surreal, nightmare landscapes with a biomechanical theme. This style is dark blend of man, nature, and machine done in paint, ink, and airbrushes. Giger’s signature art style has inspired many other artist around the world. Ibanez, a Japanese guitar brand, had formed a licensing deal to create a guitar series based on Giger’s biomechanical style.
In 1977, Giger’s most famous book, Necronomicon, served as inspiration for Director Ridley Scott’s film Alien. Giger worked on all the creature designs as well as the environments for the movie. His work with Alien won him the 1980 Oscar for the Best Achievement in Visual Effects. He is also known for the movies Poltergeist II, Alien 3, and Species.
The Museum Halle Saint Pierre in Paris, France opened a six month exhibition called “Le monde selon H.R. Giger”, which means “The World According to H.R Giger”. The Le monde selon H.R. Giger is the largest showing of his artwork out of his home country of Switzerland.
One of Giger’s dreams was to expand his works from paper to sculpture, and in 1988 he was given the opportunity to do this by designing a bar in his hometown of Chur. Later, in 1998,The H.R. Giger Museum was opened in Chateau St. Germain in Gruyeres, Switzerland. The H.R Giger Museum holds the largest collection of his works.
Giger’s unique dark style has inspired everyone from the everyday unknown artist to famous movie directors, and his skill and imagination will continue to inspire people from around the world.
www.hrgiger.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger
www.giger.com/
http://www.hrgiger.com/artwork_in_show.htm
www.giger.cz/
by William White