Zdzisław

Beksiński
(24.02.1929 – 21.02.2005)
Polish painter, photographer and sculptor

An artist who has mixed feelings in me. The fear of a disturbing

vision of his world, dark and incomprehensible, is not able to drown
out voices that whisper that the painting of this man is a
phenomenon on a large scale. I used to try to understand them, but
today, according to what Beksiński himself argued, I focus on
feeling and emotions.
"Beautiful clouds will not become more beautiful when we find
out that they are condensation of water vapor (...). Similarly,
probably - when it comes to painting - I would be happy if it
aroused admiration without the need for interpretation "- the
painter used to say.
 Biography
•During World War II, he attended the School of Economics in Sanok,
Poland. In 1947 he graduated from high school with a mathematics and
physics profile. Then he began studies at the Faculty of Architecture at
the Krakow University of Technology.
•He began his artistic path with photography. He was also involved in
painting, sculpture and computer graphics.
•Beksiński's drawings are a total abstraction. All human figures in his
drawings are deformed. In some of his works, Beksiński degrades human
dignity, showing him in quite unusual, immoral and shameless situations
- he alluded to eroticism and masochism. The depiction of a man devoid
of respect is probably typical of surrealists.
•It is also worth adding that his drawings are very detailed. We can see
that the artist spent a lot of time creating them. In his works, we can see
very thin lines of stylus, thanks to which Beksiński obtained a realistic
effect. After all, displaying human veins or bones creates terror – and I
think that's what it's all about.

88×86 cm, pencil on paper

Painting
Around 1964, he began to paint, he fully
devoted himself to fantastic, visionary,
figurative painting, carefully painted with oil
paint on fibreboard.
The first period of this painting, influenced by
Eastern mysticism, which was then adhered to
by Beksiński, was full of symbols, mysterious
content and a catastrophic, horrifying
atmosphere.
Looking at his paintings we can notice the
theme of death, passing, and the vanity of
human life. Most of the paintings show
deformed human figures, human skeletons,
crosses, building and objects in flames.
In painting, Beksiński stopped creating works
in an atmosphere of eroticism, sadism or
masochism, as was the case with drawings. His
paintings were filled with fantasy, but still
aroused anxiety and many different emotions.
Beksinski did not like symbolism. He kept repeating that
he focus on a form not content. He wanted the viewer
to experience an aesthetic shock, to interpret what he
sees according to his own psyche. He even stopped
giving titles to his works because he was afraid that he
might suggest some kind of interpretation. "Since I don't
know what I painted, I don't see why I should title it," he
said.

“I never ask myself 'what does that mean', neither in

relation to my paintings nor to others. The meaning is
completely irrelevant to me. It is worth as much as the
taste of chocolate in the literary description. I cannot
comprehend that the problem of meaning can be so
important for people when it comes to communing
with art (...), however, most often I encounter a
semantic reception, based on the description of the
objects presented in the painting. From my point of
view and with regard to my works, there is no more
wrong! (…) It is not important what appears, but what
is hidden…. What is important is what appears to our
soul, not what our eyes can see and what we can
name… ”- Beksiński once said.
Images all paintings are painted with oil paint on a
fibreboard
Title: "Creeping death" (Pełzająca śmierć)
Year: 1973
Size: 73cm x 93cm

In the background of the painting we can

see burning buildings. EV,1986, 132cm x 98,5cm

In the forefront, we can see a strange

figure, probably death, who probably
contributed to this burning catastrophe.
The city on fire is a symbol of suffering,
passing and the inability to control death.
Death disguised as half spider; half
human turned out to be the winner.
The picture shows that he is running
away from the scene.
The face is anonymous, covered with a
bandage stained with blood. In this case,
the death turned out to be very cruel.

Z-14, 1988, 98cm x 121cm


Untitled, 1982, 87cm x 87cm
Untitled, 1982, 87cm x 87cm
Title: WS
Year: 1986
Size: 98,5cm x 132cm
This image caught my attention due to the
use of red, contrasting shades.
We should look very carefully at the object
in the picture to understand what the
author meant.
On the right side you can see hands, on top
of the figure a deformed head.
The figure seems to be crawling to the left.
Her headdress and outfit are unusual, looks
like she is wrapped with layered frills.
The headgear can also prove an important
function, I think this object resembles a
human.
Title: Untitled
Year: 1984
Size: 98cm x 132cm

Some of Beksiński's paintings alluded to historical

events related to the Second World War.
This image shows many soldiers clustered together in
a semicircle.
In the foreground you can see a certain chasm
towards which the crowd of people is heading.
The painting resembles the process of a certain
decomposition and crumbling of human figures.
On the surface there are elements of the human
skeleton: skull, bones of the arm, legs.
These soldiers lost the war - death won again.
In this case, Beksiński once again showed in an
interesting way tonal transitions in colors.
The lower the picture, the darker it becomes.
The further plan is brightened and thanks to this we
see the perspective.
S4, 2004, 98cm x 132cm
VŃ, 2003, 73cm x 92cm

For my last interpretation I choose a painting from 2002.

Beksiński used the colors in shades of gray and blue.
The painting shows the figure of a man tied to a tree.
It can be concluded that this is another scene from extraterrestrial life.
In the background there are bright clouds, on the back of the human head - a halo, and in addition a
tree - a symbol of contact with God or Salvation.
On the one hand, we e can think that the head tied to a tree signifies a suicide scene, on the other
hand, on closer inspection, it can be concluded that this head is not attached to the tree but connected
U2, 2004, 92cm x 78cm
with it.
For Beksinski, only the final result was important, not the means with which he achie
While painting with oil paint on a wood board, he tried to remove all traces of the bru
this so that the person looking at the painting should focus on the vision, not on the p
technique.

“I want to paint as if I were photographing dreams. So it is a seemingly real reality

nevertheless contains a huge amount of fantastic detail. Perhaps dreams and
imaginations in other people work in a different way - for me they are always rea
pictures when it comes to chiaroscuro and perspective ”.

When asked why there is death in his paintings, he replied that he did not consciously
it, that the viewers saw it because they thought with stereotypes. His characters do no
hair for a prosaic reason - they are poorly painted with the technique he used. He pref
the expression of destruct rather than harmony. He liked to transform, he looked for o
forms. He wanted his works to have something in common that would distinguish his