- published: 14 May 2014
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Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger (/ˈɡiːɡər/ GHEE-gur; German: [ˈɡiːɡər]; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss surrealist painter, whose style was adapted for many media, including record-albums, furniture and tattoo-art.
The Zurich-based artist was best known for airbrush images of humans and machines linked together in a cold ‘biomechanical’ relationship. Later he abandoned airbrush work for pastels, markers or ink. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for design work on the film Alien. In Switzerland there are two theme-bars that reflect his interior designs, and his work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum at Gruyères.
Giger was born in 1940 in Chur, capital city of Graubünden, the largest and easternmost Swiss canton. His father, a pharmacist (chemist), viewed art as a "breadless profession" and strongly encouraged him to enter pharmaceutics, Giger recalled. He moved to Zürich in 1962, where he studied Architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970.