Shapes of Fear

The Great Depression started on October 24, 1929.

How can fear be portrayed? American artist Maynard Dixon presents his interpretation in this haunting image of four cloaked faceless figures huddled together and eerily illuminated from behind. The muted tones of their long brown robes blend with the barren ground. In today's world, it has the makings of a scene from a horror movie.

When Dixon painted this image, the country was in the grips of the Great Depression. There was widespread poverty and struggle. He created a series of social realism canvases depicting those affected by the aftermath of the economic collapse while his second wife, famed American documentary photographer Dorothea Lange, captured similar images on film. Dixon’s Shapes of Fear not only portrayed the anxiety and despair of the nation, but his own worry and dejection. After all, artists were among the first whose livelihoods were in jeopardy at that time. He later wrote, “I still had the sense of being surrounded by vague, ominous, threatening forms -- a feeling which became an obsession. Out of the need of freeing myself from it, of externalizing it, to get it out of my system grew the idea of painting “Shapes of Fear”.” 

Dixon’s initial rendering, a charcoal drawing titled Ghost People, was of a nude woman flanked by four blanketed figures. It was poorly received at an exhibit so he reworked the scene, eliminating the central female figure and creating a greater sense of foreboding. The result is the compelling Shapes of Fear, which won the popular prize at the San Francisco Art Association’s annual exhibit in 1931.

- Martina Keogan

P.S. There are also direct connections between art and horror movies; read here about German Expressionists and their movies. If you prefer to distract yourself from fear and sadness, check this calming selection of the most beautiful gardens in art. <3