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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Esther Addley

‘A way through the darkness’: the art show sublimating the horrors of past half-century

Harminder Judge’s Self Portrait (after Kali and Gene), part of The Horror Show!, features a cartoonishly scary human face cover in a black woollen mask with open mouth and dangling tongue
Harminder Judge’s Self Portrait (after Kali & Gene), featured in The Horror Show!. Photograph: (c) Harminder Judge

The Horror Show!, Somerset House’s new exhibition telling the story of the past 50 years through a ghoulish and disturbing art genre, was originally conceived in 2019. Unfortunately, as its curators note, a real-life horror show then got in the way.

Back after Covid, and conveniently timed for Halloween, it opens this week, and invites one obvious question: with so much actual horror going on all around us, why would anyone want to go to a London gallery to see more?

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