Whether as a bogeyman or in a Halloween costume—ghosts are omnipresent. Whether one ascribes to them an independent existence or regards them as manifestations of a tormented psyche, they remind us of underlying, unsettling, and repressed forces. It is no wonder that ghosts have always repeatedly haunted art as well.

This publication traces the diverse marks that ghosts have left on our visual culture. It addresses the history of the depiction and study of ghosts in Europe and the United States since the 19th century. Since then, artists in all media have explored the ghostly realm between death and life, horror and humor, the visible and the invisible. In art of recent decades, ghosts often appear as metaphors for all that is violent and repressed, which haunts us.

Works by William Blake, Nicole Eisenman, Katharina Fritsch, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Ryan Gander, Mike Kelley, Paul Klee, René Magritte, Meret Oppenheim, Tony Oursler, Cornelia Parker, Thomas Schütte, Rachel Whiteread, among many others.