The Cthulhu Club

Imagine if the surreal horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos had reached back through time to inspire the great artists of the past. How might they have depicted this cosmic entity? The idea of these iconic painters confronting the eldritch creature awakens a tantalizing "what if" in the mind. Take a glimpse at this alternate art history, where the tentacled terror finds expression on the canvases of history’s greatest creators, if you dare...

AI-ASSISTED ART

All the images below were created using a text-to-image algorithm with the prompt "Cthulhu in the style of [artist name]". Juggernaut XI and SDXL 1.0 are the predominant models used.

AI-GENERATED "What Ifs"

Clicking on an image will show you the image and a paragraph generated by ChatGPT describing how the artist might have depicted Cthulhu. The description and the image were generated independently, and may or may not match.

LINK TO ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

At the bottom of each description there is a link to an "Artist Spotlight" for the given artist, complete with brief background, notes on the artist's style and works, and several AI-Assisted Art images "in the style" of that artist.

A green Cthulhu with a menacing stare in the expressionist style.

Affandi's Cthulhu

Affandi might paint Cthulhu as a chaotic explosion of swirling, violent strokes and fiery colors. His expressive, textured lines would capture the creature’s tentacles as wild, twisting arcs bursting from a storm of deep reds, blacks, and blues, evoking raw energy, fear, and nightmarish power in a frenzied, almost violent composition.

Image to Text Match: The raw power is present in this image, even if it is primarily green.

A green Cthulhu wearing a suit is surrounded by fish and tiny Cthulhu's.

Brauner's Cthulhu

Victor Brauner might paint Cthulhu as a surreal and mystical figure, with the creature’s form abstracted into symbolic and dreamlike imagery. Cthulhu’s tentacles might appear as otherworldly extensions, merging with distorted human and animal features, eyes, and mystical symbols. The composition would be imbued with a sense of the uncanny, using muted, eerie colors and fragmented forms to convey the subconscious horror of Cthulhu. Brauner’s work would transform the creature into a haunting, symbolic entity, blending elements of mythology, mysticism, and surrealism

Image to Text Match: In this case I like both the text and the image generations, even if they don't quite agree.

A green and red face is surrounded by circular colorful geometric forms, suggesting tentacles.

Delaunay's Cthulhu

Sonia Delaunay might paint Cthulhu as a dynamic composition of swirling, concentric circles and bold, intersecting shapes in vivid, contrasting colors. The creature’s form would be abstracted into rhythmic, geometric patterns, with its tentacles suggested by flowing curves and arcs radiating across the canvas. The vibrant, harmonious color palette would create an energetic yet disorienting visual rhythm, transforming Cthulhu’s ominous presence into a hypnotic dance of color, shape, and movement, blending cosmic horror with the vibrancy of modernist abstraction.

Image to Text Match: Not bad!

Cthulhu, wearing a suit with a bow tie and an orange beret, stands upon a brightly colored beach.

Derain's Cthulhu

André Derain might paint Cthulhu using bold, Fauvist colors and exaggerated forms, transforming the creature into a vibrant and unsettling presence. Cthulhu’s tentacles could be rendered in intense, unnatural hues—like bright reds, oranges, and greens—set against a vivid, almost surreal landscape. Derain’s energetic brushstrokes and striking color contrasts would create a sense of chaotic vitality, turning the cosmic horror of Cthulhu into an expressive, dynamic vision that blends menace with the wild, untamed spirit of Fauvism.

Image to Text Match: The bright colors are captured in the image, but the cosmic horror is absent.

Many-tentacled Cthulhu stares at the viewer with red eyes, but seems rooted to the ground.

Ernst's Cthulhu

Max Ernst might paint Cthulhu as a chaotic and nightmarish vision, utilizing his signature techniques like frottage and grattage to create a textured, eerie landscape. The creature would likely emerge from a surreal, dreamlike scene filled with bizarre, organic forms and uncanny juxtapositions. Tentacles might twist and merge with abstract shapes and fragmented, haunting figures, blending elements of the natural world with the grotesque. Ernst’s Cthulhu would evoke a sense of primal terror, as if conjured from the depths of the unconscious mind, capturing the essence of cosmic horror through a surreal, disorienting lens.

Image to Text Match: The image does not emphasize the abstract forms nearly as much as the text, and despite any sense of horror is mitigated by Cthulhu seemingly being rooted to the ground.

Cthulhu with wide eyes in front of buildings topped with mushrooms.

Hundertwasser's Cthulhu

Friedensreich Hundertwasser might paint Cthulhu as a vibrant, spiraling mass of organic shapes and swirling colors, blending psychedelic greens, blues, and golds. The creature’s tentacles would curl and twist through a labyrinth of whimsical, undulating lines and asymmetrical forms, turning cosmic horror into a mesmerizing, almost hypnotic blend of nature and chaos, both enchanting and unsettling.

Image to Text Match: The specifics don't particularly match, but I do find this image mesmerizing.

Mosaic-like image of a child-like Cthulhu wearing a red bandana.

Klee's Cthulhu

Paul Klee might paint Cthulhu as a playful yet eerie arrangement of geometric shapes and fragmented patterns. The creature could be depicted as an abstract figure made of curling spirals, jagged lines, and disjointed forms in bold colors like reds, yellows, and blues. The seemingly childlike design would conceal an underlying sense of unease, with distorted eyes and unsettling symmetry hinting at the lurking horror within the abstract, dreamlike composition.

Image to Text Match: The image shares a number of features from the text. It is perhaps lighter on the terror, but there is something unsettling about this image.

Cthulhu emerges from a field of green as thin red 'zip lines' of blood trickle into the sea.

Newman's Cthulhu

Barnett Newman might paint Cthulhu as a vast, minimal field of deep, oppressive color—like dark blue or black—broken by a single, sharp vertical line (a “zip”) cutting through the void. This line would symbolize the lurking presence of Cthulhu, suggesting an incomprehensible force breaking through the abyss. The stark simplicity and monumental scale would evoke the existential dread and the unfathomable nature of the creature, expressing cosmic horror through pure abstraction and minimalism.

Image to Text Match: Although I did generate an image similar to this description, I found this image more compelling. The "zip" lines are still present, but it has a more 3D quality and a more realistic Cthulhu than Newman would likely have painted.

A white Cthulhu towers over the land, seemingly rooted in the ground with large ears like flower petals.

OKeeffe's Cthulhu

Georgia O’Keeffe might paint Cthulhu as a close-up, flowing abstraction of organic forms, with undulating curves and soft, layered gradients. The creature’s tentacles could be depicted as elongated, sensuous shapes, blending earthy tones with deep blues and shadowy purples. Her style would turn the horror of Cthulhu into something both beautiful and ominous, resembling a surreal, larger-than-life flower or wave, evoking a sense of mysterious allure and lurking dread within nature’s forms.
Image to Text Match: The description doesn't match the color scheme of the image, but in some ways it is not far off.

Cthulhu, garbed in a robe like a judge's or a priest's, stands on the seashore holding a staff topped with a Cthulhu head.

Portinari's Cthulhu

Candido Portinari might paint Cthulhu with a dramatic, socially charged expression, blending his signature style of human struggle with cosmic horror. The creature would emerge amidst dark, earthy tones and turbulent brushstrokes, with twisted forms and shadowy tentacles looming over a scene of despair. Portinari’s focus on the suffering and resilience of humanity would be reflected in a haunting vision of Cthulhu as an embodiment of both environmental and existential anguish, fusing mythic terror with the harsh realities of life.
Image to Text Match: The written description here is logical, but quite different from the image that was generated simply using "in the style of".

An adorable Cthulhu holds a basket with baby Cthulhu's.

Potter's Cthulhu

Beatrix Potter might paint Cthulhu as a deceptively quaint and charming figure nestled within a tranquil woodland scene. Delicately rendered with her signature soft watercolors and intricate line work, the creature’s tentacles would curl subtly among blooming flowers and ferns, blending into the peaceful setting. The unsettling contrast between the picturesque, idyllic landscape and the lurking, eerie presence of Cthulhu would create a gentle yet chilling vision of cosmic horror in the midst of nature.

Image to Text Match: Some of the details are different, but Potter's style is clearly shown in both the image and the text interpretations. Is holding a basket of adorable Cthulhu babies more, or less, dreadful.

The head of Cthulhu with empty round eye sockets stares at the viewer, with a red color field dripping down onto a green color field.

Rothko's Cthulhu

Mark Rothko might depict Cthulhu as an abstract void, using large, looming blocks of deep blacks, purples, and shadowy reds. His signature color fields would suggest an overwhelming, unknowable presence, with subtle gradients hinting at a hidden, monstrous depth—Cthulhu felt more as a vast, existential dread than seen directly.

Image to Text Match: I have done a number of Rothko-inspired Cthulhu images, and some do minimize the image of Cthulhu to more of a suggestion. But I loved this image too much not to share it here.