How Zdzisław Beksiński shows us more than mere reality
When we step on our bikes in the dark of early morning to catch the train to school, or when we take seat in our cars to go to work, there is not much going on apart from the reality of the external world. Nothing extraordinary. We might forget, in such instances, that there is more than that.
About a year ago, thanks to a reddit post, I came across the art of a Polish painter named Zdzisław Beksiński. His paintings of hellish displays picturing death and decay gave life to a strange romance in me, a romance only felt when faced with artworks that move us in some way.
Without delving into what the painted nightmares meant, I kept them to myself whenever I searched for inspiration and sent them to many of my friends, all of whom had the same reaction:
“Wow.”
As I write this, my Pinterest board ‘illustrations’ is filled with his work.
Now that the first butterflies of love have flown I can look at it with a different set of eyes. Now it felt like the time to look and ask myself the question: “What is this?” I think Beksiński’s work can offer us an important lesson.
His life
Zdzisław Beksiński was born on February 24th, 1929, in a small southeastern town called Sanok, Poland. It doesn’t require much thought about the date of his birth to bring to mind the impending tragedy; the Second World War.
In 1939, when little Beksiński was ten years of age, Poland was invaded by Nazi-Germany, despite just signing a non-aggression pact with Soviet Russia — the invasion that would unleash the hell hound of war.
From history we know that during the German invasion many people died, but later, and certainly with the counter invasion of Russia, many more perished. Polish soldiers surrendered in October of 1939 after they had lost 65,000 soldiers and several thousand civilians.
When we look at pictures taken in Poland during that time, it isn’t hard to imagine these harrowing displays made a permanent impact on the young Zdzisław.
Warning; these pictures can be disturbing.
The discovery of art
Despite the war Zdzisław went off to study in Warsaw, where he graduated as a designer and afterwards came back to his birthplace to design buses.
He also discovered photography during that time, something that captured his imagination, but only momentarily, as it quickly proved inadequate for his powerful fantasy. Once finished with experimenting cutting together photographic elements to something that could satisfy him artistically, he discovered painting.
Painting was what eventually gave Zdzisław his fame. He found the possibilities of the canvas an adequate subject for his imagination. He did not do much else from that day until his last.
One of the interesting things about Beksiński is that he showed no interest in trends. He was his own universe and cared little about new developments in the world of his craft. He was also very reticent to display his work or even selling it, especially in his later years.
In an interview held in 1997 he told the interviewer his animosity towards exposing his work was partly because of the lighting. He held the belief the light had to be exactly the same as when the painter created his work, or it would not be up to the artwork’s origin, and therefore insufficient for viewing.
His fame grew when in 1998 his tragic life story climaxed. His wife Zofia died of cancer, and a year later his son, Tomasz, committed suicide, of whom Zdzisław himself found the body. If this wasn’t enough yet, he was stabbed to death in 2005 in his Warsaw apartment by a teenager he knew because he had declined to lend the boy a small sum of money.
Finding meaning
It wasn’t easy finding a meaning behind Zdzisław’s works. Partly because the painter remained an absolute vacuum when it came to the meaning behind his art, even if he articulated it himself, which is questionable.
His reaction to questions like those was as following:
“Meaning is meaningless to me. I do not care for symbolism and I paint what I paint without meditating on a story.”
On the one hand I doubt this, on the other I can see him painting what his heart tells him. In any way, the work shows a genius and absence of articulated vision of the artist himself does not discredit that. A different, very inspiring quote surfaced during my research.
“What matters is what appears in your soul, not what your eyes see and what you can name.”
As someone who is, at this moment, very analytical in trying to articulate meaning in my own work, this is very inspiring. Yet it wasn’t only positive. I was left with the feeling that I should just conjure up something myself without finding other visions or counter arguments to sharpen mine. Luckily, I found an important statement made by the artist.
“I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams”
If there was anything that sprung out as a possible angle for finding meaning behind the dark art of the Polish painter, it was this one. I immediately recalled the opening to a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, titled; ‘Beyond the Wall of Sleep’ from 1919.
“I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong.”
Beksiński’s work is frequently linked to the tragic later years of his life, but that is of course chronologically impossible. Even a creative genius like him can’t predict the future, I think.
My interpretation
What I think a large part of his work refers to, is the experience of the Second World War. We see many religious motives in his work like cathedrals and the cross, but also regular surroundings transformed by a traumatic experience.
I can not imagine any support gained from faith (even if he held it to begin with) when people are being shot in the streets, cities are burning down and Jews are being shipped of to death camps in trains filled to the brim.
What I think Beksiński shows us, is that there is more than mere reality of the external world. The power and importance of fantasy and imagination is something downplayed as unimportant, especially during a time where science is, thankfully, important and powerful. But it is not less than science.
If I can speak freely, I sometimes view fantasy and imagination as more important than science. I can read history books and view photographs from reporters during the time where the Polish painter found himself in, but when I look at his paintings and try to imagine that time it hits me a thousand times harder. It obviously didn’t look like this literally, but it did to him, it felt like that.
Viewing the works of Beksiński we can experience his situation from a vacuum. It allows us to place our self in the psyche of someone who was metaphorically possessed by the hellish displays taking place on the street and in his country. Emaciated, broken people, cities transformed into ruins and any support found in faith crumbling until there is nothing more than a plucked carcass left on the cross.
Zdzisław Beksiński shows us more than reality can; it shows the human experience of true trauma’s during times barely possible to imagine from just dry facts. He tells us honestly about his fantasies originating from the darkest corners of his mind, and shows us that there is more than mere reality, which sometimes feels painfully insufficient in expression.
But this is just my interpretation, what do you think?
To end things on a positive note, the man was not depressed and tormented all of the time. He had, according to many, a keen sense of humor and was pleasant in conversation.
