The Mad Genius of Boris Artzybasheff
Weird, brilliant, and way cooler than your art history teacher admits.
Boris Artzybasheff didn’t just draw, he warped reality into something both hilarious and terrifying. Born in Russia in 1899, he jumped ship to America and somehow turned commercial illustration into a surreal fever dream. While most ad artists in the mid-1900s were drawing perfect housewives and shiny cars, Boris gave us typewriters with teeth, microphones that sweated, and factories that looked like they might devour you whole.
Wait. Before you complain, he was anti-Nazi
His Art Was Awesome
Boris' machines came with personality. He turned inanimate objects into funny and freaky characters. Think Pixar, but if Pixar took more acid. And, they were weird. Boris could make a light bulb look sinister or a cash register look smug. Everyday stuff suddenly felt alive.
That sweet spot between art and advertising. His stuff ran in Time, Life, and Fortune. These are the magazines that usually played it safe. But with Boris? Nah.
The Style You Didn’t Know You Missed
Artzybasheff’s illustrations look like they crawled out of a fever dream, but they weren’t just weird for weirds sake. His art made you feel something. You might have felt uneasy, or amused, or sometimes like you should unplug your radio before it grows legs.
He took the boringness of commercial art and slammed it against the raw chaos of surrealism. That collision is why his work still feels modern, even though it’s nearly a century old.
Who Else Drew Like This?
Boris wasn’t totally alone in the land of the bizarre. A few artistic cousins are worth name-dropping:
- Ralph Steadman - Hunter S. Thompson’s partner-in-crime, splattering ink into grotesque, political chaos.
- Rube Goldberg - The man who made overcomplicated contraptions legendary.
- H.R. Giger - Yep, the Alien guy. Less cheeky, more nightmarish, but still in that “let’s humanise machines and freak you out” territory.
- Heinz Edelmann - Art director behind The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. He carried some of that same “everything’s alive, deal with it” energy.
So while Boris isn’t mainstream-famous today, his DNA runs through all kinds of visual culture; from ad mascots to dystopian sci-fi.
Because Boris Artzybasheff was proof that weird sells. He smuggled surrealism into your breakfast magazine and made the ordinary feel uncanny. Without him, we might not have the visual playgrounds we take for granted in design today.
So next time you see an ad where your phone has eyes or your toaster looks smug, tip your hat to Boris. He drew it first.
So…would you put a Boris Artzybasheff original on your wall, or would it give you nightmares?
