The Artist of Nightmares: Zdzisław Beksiński

To see the Google Drive version of Beksinski’s artwork click here.

To see the Google Slides version of Beksinski’s artwork and sources for this presentation click here.

A couple of days ago, I discovered an amazing artist named Zdzisław Beksiński (1929-2005).

In 1952, Beksinski graduated from Cracow University of Technology after studying architecture. He  spent his time after college building up a career in construction – which Beksinski said “[he] really didn’t enjoy” – while maintaining photography, sculpting and painting as hobbies which relaxed him.  Beksinski said “[he] didn’t know [he] could make living painting pictures”  until a successful exhibition in Warsaw in 1964 which allowed him to realize his hobbies could become a  career.

His artwork followed the abstract, surrealism and magic realism art movements while depicting macabre figures and otherworldly architecture and spaces. To put simply, Beksinski’s artwork is unsettling to look at. One of his only named pieces, “Sadist Corset”(1957) exhibits Beksinski’s wife’s body wrapped in black string.

This photograph is far from the traditional nude photography from the late 1950s  and illustrates Beksinski’s desire to distort and disfigure reality which follows through in his artwork until his death.

Beksinski’s passion of experimenting with the abstract possibilities of photography made him a controversial figure in the Polish photography scene.  In 1958, Beksinski published an essay in the “Photography” magazine titled “The Crisis in Photography and the Perspective to Overcome It.” This essay detailed Beksinski’s criticisms of traditional vanilla photography. He expressed that photography, like other mediums, should be experimented with – it should be more abstract.  A year later, Beksinski organized an exhibition in Gliwice which became known as “The Anti-Photography.” Beksinski wanted to let art critics know that he did not want to be associated with the traditional “pure photography” that other Polish photographers followed.

Unfortunately, during the late nineties, photography didn’t offer the creativity and freedom Beksinski wanted, and he dove deeper into painting. Painting allowed Beksinski to alter, distort and disfigure reality.  This untitled piece illustrates a  giant Gothic cathedral-like building built out of bones.

This painting, like many others, sets an eerie atmosphere for the speculator. From  my point of view, the painting is commentary on the dark side of organized religion. Influential political figures have abused organized religion in order to greedily get what they desire. In the name of God, people have enslaved, invaded, converted, and killed others in order to build  and gain power. The bones in this piece demonstrates the lives that have been taken and destroyed in order to build up power through the use of organized religion.

Beksinski’s art is fascinating to say the least. His art conveys the unbearable truth of our reality – it is ugly, disfigured and unbearable. With over 700 pieces in museums in Poland and Japan, Beksinski continues to impact the way we view reality even a decade after his death. Through the creation of his art, Beksinski undoubtedly left a legacy on the modern art of Poland and the rest of the world.