Oddball art: cannibals, hellscapes & flying monks

From kaleidoscopic hellscapes to portraits of cannibals and flying monks, Edward Brooke-Hitching introduces some of the strangest creations in art history. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, he takes us on a tour around this ‘madman’s gallery’ of scandalous and eccentric works, including a painting created with pigment made from mummified remains, artworks inspired by contacting the dead, and family portraits created by an algorithm.

Edward Brooke-Hitching is the author of The Madman's Gallery: The Strangest Paintings, Sculptures and Other Curiosities From the History of Art (Simon & Schuster, 2022)