Is horror an essential part of modern art?

Question:

Is horror an essential part of modern art?

From Roy Campbell??s translation of "Au lecteur" ("To the Reader") by Baudelaire, 1857:

... If rape or arson, poison, or the knife
Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
Of this drab canvas we accept as life—
It is because we are not bold enough!

Additional Details

2 days ago
Wellwell Tomtom...you have spoken the universal truth and provided the perfect examples. Until our lifetimes, horror was reserved for the written word. Pictorial art is too base and provocative to be used as a canvas for our darkest sins. The masters all knew this. Leonardo's anatomy sketches are as close to grotesque that renaissance art ever got.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: 2 days ago
Wellwell Tomtom...you have spoken the universal truth and provided the perfect examples. Until our lifetimes, horror was reserved for the written word. Pictorial art is too base and provocative to be used as a canvas for our darkest sins. The masters all knew this. Leonardo's anatomy sketches are as close to grotesque that renaissance art ever got.