Prophet-making artists

These 10 artworks eerily predicted death, disaster, and modern life — proof that sometimes a brush is mightier than a crystal ball

- Sulogna Mehta

Victor Brauner's Self-Portrait with Enucleated Eye.

The Romanian surrealist blended human, animal and object when he painted his figures. He often represented subjects whose eyes or a single eye were detached from their orbits. He probably wouldn't have painted this oil on canvas in 1931 had he known what was to come. In 1938, Brauner got into a bar brawl and was hit by a glass. He lost only his left eye.

Michael Richards's Tar Baby vs St. Sebastian.

Did the sculptor foresee his death in an airplane attack? His 1999 work used a bronze cast of his own body dressed as an Afro-American Tuskegee aviator.

It featured dozens of aircrafts pierced through its form. On September 11, 2001, Richards was in his studio on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Centre (North Tower), when the first hijacked plane flew into the floor above, killing him and thousands of others.

Van Gogh's At Eternity's Gate.