Ligotti / Aickman as painters

 

I'm an advocate of the fallaciousness of trying to gauge intentionality in art. So, below should be seen in that context.

Ligotti's work reveals an author (an author intentionally projected by the real author either as the author's fictional persona or as the author's actual perceived real persona), i.e. an author that is an author who has an inferred repressed sexual pungency but a proudly expressed sick puckishness. The varying degrees of self-awareness in both these aspects cause tensions useful to the effect of the fiction on any reader susceptible to such an effect. 'Ligotti' is thus an Expressionist painter concerned with self-exorcism by Eschatology.

Aickman's work (revealing an author as with 'Ligotti' above) - but an easy, proudly released sexual pungency combined with a strangely un-self-aware sick puckishness. A quite different mix resulting in subtly varying tensions but without the  'Ligotti' pressure-cooker of repression. 'Aickman' is thus a representational Cubist/Absurdist, if such a painter can exist, a painter concerned with self-exorcism by Mental Scatology as well as Eschatology. (See Ravissante).