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Though most of these are thrillers, they featured art or artists prominently- the Sketch Artist series, Sudden Impact, Tattoo, Night of the Generals, The Train, Blow-Up, I Shot Andy Warhol, House of Horrors, Chamber of Horrors, Spellbound(artistic backdrops by Dali), the films of Ralph Bakshi, and the recent Chemical Wedding(man is possessed by Aleister Crowley, who when not pretending to be the devil, dabbled in art and even designed his own Tarot cards).
On the bio side, the 2 films about Frida Kahlo, whose work leans heavily towards surreal fantasy. Love is the Devil was about Francis Bacon, whose art can be viewed as horrific(the film makers didn’t have permission to photograph his work, so recreated it for the film). The Mondo films usually featured segues into the art world(usually to squeeze in shots of nude models and give the film some kind of artistic merit for those pesky censors). Ken Russell did a lot of over the top biopics about various musical artists, usually highly fantastical.
The films of Luis Bunuel and Jean Cocteau could be viewed as works of art by themselves, as they both were founding fathers of the Surrealist movement. Photographer Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will and Olympia, though not horror, could both be viewed with evil undercurrents as both films are masterpieces of propaganda for the Nazi regime.
Phantom of the Opera was about a composer, Vertigo had a clothes designer, Rear Window a photographer. In the Silence of the Lambs films, Dr. Lector not only appreciated art, but was an artist. And even in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you had sculptural pieces(those bones were assembled by artisans).
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