History Main / AnomalousArt

* In Creator/JamesHerbert's ''Literature/TheMagicCottage'', the titular cottage, infused with a concentration of the "[[SentientCosmicForce ethereal vitality]]" which drives and shapes the universe, rouses both benevolent and fearsome anomalies, and inspires an illustrator to an astoundingly lucid painting, in whose recreation of reality her boyfriend briefly finds himself immersed.

** "Widow's Walk". This painting is of the crowded dockside of a busy port. Anyone who looks at it for 10 minutes becomes immune to all divination magic and psionics directed at him for the next eight hours.

** In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', a nervous night watchman in Ankh-Morpork's Art Museum breaks an age-old [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Ephebian]] urn. It is put down as one of those things. It is inferred that this is the prison of Pedestriana, Goddess of [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Foot-The-Ball]]. Now freed into the world, she looks at what humans have made of her sport - originally a religious ritual in her honor but now degenerated to a [[FootballHooligans day-long street brawl]] - and starts putting things to rights.

->''Art is the ultimate expression of Chaos. When I say art, I'm not speaking of the droll portraits that hang in every home, nor the landscape scenes that capture the beauty of our great Empire. No, I'm speaking of those pieces produced in the feverish imaginations of the mentally diseased, those men and women who capture the perverse landscapes of their nightmares. These are reflections of evil, of Chaos in its truest form. That which does not exist in our world is of the Realm of Chaos, and to dabble in imagination is surely as damning as embracing the Ruinous Powers directly.''
-->--'''Gallo, Witch Hunter of Bechafen''', ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' ("Tome of Corruption")

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': A supposedly 10th century tapestry is sent to the museum Helena Sandsmark works at. Diana touches it while it's being examined causing the figures within to rise from the tapestry and come to life as the thing was sent there by villains hoping to capture Wonder Woman.

* ''Art of the Dead'' is about a collection of seven paintings based on the SevenDeadlySins that cause those who stay in their presense for too long to slowly be consumed by the corresponding sin.

* In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', a nervous night watchman in Ankh-Morpork's Art Museum breaks an age-old [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Ephebian]] urn. It is put down as one of those things. It is inferred that this is the prison of Pedestriana, Goddess of [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Foot-The-Ball]]. Now freed into the world, she looks at what humans have made of her sport - originally a religious ritual in her honor but now degenerated to a [[FootballHooligans day-long street brawl]] - and starts putting things to rights.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E19Provenance Provenance]]": A portrait of the Merchant family, who were murdered in the early 1900s, is an ArtifactOfDeath for any household that buys it. It turns out to be haunted by the family's murderer [[spoiler:Melanie Merchant]], who's just as AxCrazy in death, [[spoiler:as well as by her father Isaiah, who tries to prevent Melanie from killing again]].

** Some of Bloody Stupid Johnson's forays into art turn into this. The Unseen University organ has Vox Dei, Thunderstorm, Whoopee Cushion, Squashed Toad, Squashed Rabbits, and most worrisomely, Earthquake voices; his Don'tgonearthe Castle features Wolf Howl, Thunderclap, Scream and Creaky Floors. Empirical Crescent, his attempt to create a neighborhood, wound up creating a labyrinthine tesseract. His cooking attempts include an ultra-hard wedding cake and a pastry that somehow leveled several blocks around it. Most of his monumental oeuvre could fit in a matchbox.

* As [[WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged Alexander Anderson]] makes his way through [[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} Byrgenwerth College]] in ''Fanfic/AndersonQuestKillingVampiresAndWerewolvesAndLeprechuans'', he finds a bust of the much-decried main Yharnam architect [[Franchise/{{Discworld}} Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]], AKA [[BunglingInventor Bloody Stupid Johnson]]. He tries to deface it, only to find that no matter how he moves it, it always keeps facing him, and when he puts a finger on its nose and asks his companion Simon where he's touching, Simon says it's the ''cheek''. [[EldritchAbomination Ebrietas]] gets the cosmic horror equivalent of a headache when she sees it, and it reacts violently when Anderson tries to shove it into his personal {{Hammerspace}}. Most surprisingly, according to a Byrgenwerth resident, Johnson [[AchievementInIgnorance managed to make it with only normal marble, a hammer and a chisel, fascinated after seeing portraits that seemed to stare at the viewer]].

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': In ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', the entrance to Montmartre (the Parisian equivalent of Diagon Alley) is guarded in-plane sight by a bronze statue depicting a woman sitting on a pedestal. When a witch or wizard approaches it, the statue will move its leg and dress away from the pedestal it was set on, opening the passage.

** "The Blessed Ones" painting causes any viewer to gain one Insanity point and, if one drop of blood fell on it then two Unholy Ones are released and, if succesful, the viewer is locked in the painting forever.

* Using the loose realities of the mindscape Union, MadArtist and serial killer Stephano Valentino in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'' uses his RealityWarping abilities to transform the innocent people unfortunate enough to be in Union with him into {{Gorn}}[=ish=] art pieces. Many of these works of art are their grizzly murders rendered in slow-motion. Other works of art take the form of freakish monsters such as the Guardian, a towering creature with multiple women's heads and a chainsaw for an arm, and Obscura, a grotesque amalgamation of two women victims with a time-freezing antique camera for a head.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' has a scenario in which the monster of the week, [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGrey Dora-in-Grey]], takes the form of a mural that can lead to another dimension. Her m.o? To prey on peoples' desire for glory by telling them that her mural will bring glory to its viewers, or appeal to sympathy by pretending to be a little girl whose parents were lost looking at the mural. Once they're trapped, she lures them into her trap and adds them to her mural.

* As [[WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged Alexander Anderson]] makes his way through [[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} Byrgenwerth College]] in ''Fanfic/AndersonQuestKillingVampiresAndWerewolvesAndLeprechuans'', he finds a bust of the much-decried main Yharnam architect [[Franchise/{{Discworld}} Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]], AKA [[BunglingInventor Bloody Stupid Johnson]]. He tries to deface it, only to find that no matter how he moves it, it always keeps facing him, and when he puts a finger on its nose and asks his companion Simon where he's touching, Simon says it's the ''cheek''. [[EldritchAbomination Ebrietas]] gets the cosmic horror equivalent of a headache when she sees it, and it reacts violently when Anderson tries to shove it into his personal {{Hammerspace}}. Most surprisingly, according to a Byrgenwerth resident, Johnson managed to make it with only normal marble, a hammer and a chisel, fascinated after seeing portraits that seemed to stare at the viewer.

** Instances of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-531 SCP-531]] are brass statues of cats with interesting properties should they make eye contact. If it isn't broken, humans have a strong psychological aversion to passing between the statues, and if eye contact is broken, the person who broke eye contact will slowly transform into another statue. Interestingly, the Foundation has interest in applying these statues for its own security purposes.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-800 SCP-800]] is a paper scroll that updates itself to reflect East Asian military conflicts. The scroll has been around since the late 19th century, and has taken forms representing the Russo-Japanese War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It can be edited, but the Foundation heavily discourages it, as [[spoiler: North Korea ran a nuclear test]] a short time after the scroll was changed.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-804 SCP-804]] is a modern art piece of a globe that breaks down all artificial objects until they disintegrate, while humans will starve and die, all within an ever-expanding radius. Thankfully, it's not immune to its own effects, so it shut itself down, and the freezing cold of the Alaskan wilderness should prevent it from starting again. [[spoiler: It doesn't have any memetic effects, either- the artists built it simply because they wanted to see humanity die.]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Ib}}'' is based heavily around this trope, with much of the game taking place in an art gallery exhibit of a MadArtist, where art pieces attack the protagonists. Later in the game [[spoiler: they explore a NightmareFuelColoringBook world created by Mary, a CreepyChild who is actually a living painting created by said artist]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Madarame's Palace takes the form of a huge (and incredibly gaudy) art museum. Several sections have paintings that can be entered, transporting the party into them and one features a giant octopus that will smack the party back out of the painting if they approach it.

Portraits who's eyes follow you. Statues that come to life and try to kill you. Photographs that act as portals to otherworldly pocket dimensions of [[MonochromePast sepia-tone]]. When a Mad Artist has access to AppliedPhlebotinum or TheDarkArts, they usually make Phlebotinum-based [[{{Pun}} Dark Artwork]] out of it where it is unleashed onto any poor curator or patron to whatever museum or street-gallery it is displayed in. It can be an AncientArtifact of an anonymous painter or animist from some foreign land, or it can be some abstract drip painting from a New York cruiser. Either way, magic is magic.

* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': In ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', the entrance to Montmarte (the Parisian equivalent of Diagon Alley) is guarded in-plane sight by a bronze statue depicting a woman sitting on a pedestal. When a witch or wizard approaches it, the statue will move its leg and dress away from the pedestal it was set on, opening the passage.