Horror Vacui (also known as Horror Vaccui)

Introduction

One of the most famous movements in the field of arts, whether applied or not, is minimalism. Many originate it in the Japanese culture but a closer look can find traces even in ancient Greece. Its motto is less is more and its followers have applied it in painting and sculpture to architecture and poetry. The easiest way to define Horror Vaccui is as the exact opposite of minimalism. Vaccui is the Latin word for vacuum, emptiness and Horror Vaccui means fear of empty spaces. The filling of the entire canvas/space/medium with not a color or an item but with endless details and figures, shapes, lines and everything else the artist envision Originally the term Horror Vaccui was a psychiatric term that described the fear that the disturbed people had for empty spaces, white walls or even blank paper sheets. In art most examples come from the mentally unstable and inmates of psychiatric facilities. The most prominent figures are Jean Dubbufet and Adolf Wolfli. The first one is a psychiatrist but also the very open minded and receptive man, able to recognize the value of an art piece and the second an inmate with the ability, but more over the profound need to create what many acknowledge as masterpieces. Their combined efforts both in creating and promoting their work had a major impact in the art field that its effects are visible even today. The art field, as many times in the past, is the place for new things to be breed, where the applied arts and especially graphic design (or communication design) and comics is the place to grow and expand. Horror Vaccui had its impact, whether conscious or unconscious in graphic design. The works of David Carson, Vaughan Oliver and tomato are only a few of the most famous examples where the Horror Vaccui phenomenon is prominent. Comics on the other hand, that by nature are closer to pure art, also have instances of Horror Vaccui. The work of creators like S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb and Robert Williams is filled with fear, amongst other things, for empty spaces. I most cases the pages are filled from top to bottom with details in an endless effort to satisfy their agony for expression but also in the same time to declare their fragile state of mind.

Some examples of horror vacui can be seen on Barbaric objects such as the viking ship at Sutton Hoo or the Ruthwell Cross .

The term is especially associated with the Italian critic and scholar Mario Praz , who used it to describe the suffocating atmosphere and clutter of interior design in the Victorian age.