Along Ruined Soul tribute to Zdzislaw Beksinski
Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929-2005, may he rest in peace) is best known for his enormous, fanatically detailed paintings of catastrophic cityscapes, surreal landscapes, humanoid figures, and afflicted nudes. I have been a true hearted admirer of his talent for almost 30 years now. For me the beauty of his imagery is mysteriously powerful and captivating. Beksinski exercised a self-proclaimed fantastic realism style, reminiscent of Bruegel, Ernst, Bosch, and bearing conceptual resemblance to his Swiss contemporary, H.R. Giger. Artist’s post-apocalyptic vision, much like Giger’s, is utterly disturbing due to a unique suspense created by a highly developed architectural view. Overwhelmingly gigantic structures rise up from the dust or an empty desert. Muscular figures frolic under ominous skies. The way Beksinski handles scale and texture is both meticulous and ingenious.
Like a cathedral or a skyscraper, many of his paintings are strangely life-affirming in an awe inspiring way. Blighted lovers embrace, cheery balloons float above crumbling towers, ruined souls, men holding a light over a bottom of a deep chasm… His works are capable of irradiating an all-affecting, almost nuclear power. But there won’t be any friendly invitations. Beksinski detested silence and was in a habit of listening to classical music while he painted. His legacy as an artist doesn’t fully correspond to him as a person: he was a soft-spoken yet surprisingly sociable man. Captivated by computer technology and the internet, he shifted his focus to digital art-photography. The late 90s was a time of bitter trial for the artist. His wife died and a year later his son, Tomasz, committed suicide. Beksinski could never be the man he used to be again. In February 2005 he was found dead in his Warsaw apartment with multiple stab wounds on his body. It was an unsuccessful robbery of approximately $100. Artist Zdzislaw Beksinski biography
Although Beksinski depicted a dreadful world, he felt that much of his work was misunderstood. Like Kafka, who was known to laugh hysterically while reading aloud his own stories, the painter was often amused by his own work. He insisted his vision was ultimately optimistic or even humoristic. He once made the following ironic remark about his own life, ‘’I'm certain that I don't know anything about my own past except everything, but everything is about as much as nothing. Apart from that, presumably I was born, and I shall be doing my best not to die, but I'm sure I won't manage it.’
(Title Rus) Реквием по Загубленной Душе или Дань Уважения к Здиславу Бексинскому
Software media: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, Smith Micro Poser, Planetside Terragen, Photo Stock
George Grie, April 2011
© Copyright | George Grie | Copying is permitted only with an active link to neosurrealismart.com
Along Ruined Soul tribute to Zdzislaw Beksinski, depression dystopian surrealism