Artist - Zdzislaw Beksinski

Zdzislaw Deksinski (24 February, 1929 – 21 February, 2005) was a renowned Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor who is best known as a fantasy artist. Beksinski labeled his paintings and drawings either in what he called a 'Baroque' or a 'Gothic' manner. He really had two styles. The first style came from his 'fantastic realism' period when he painted disturbing images of a surrealistic, nightmarish environments. The second style is more abstract and is shown by Beksiński's later paintings. Beksinski had no formal training as an artist. His paintings were mainly created using oil paint on hardboard panels which he personally prepared, although he also experimented with acrylic paints. He abhorred silence, and always listened to classical music while painting. He was murdered in 2005.

Beksinski's work reminds me a lot of H.R. Geiger. Very dark, very other-worldly and in a sense, very similar stylistically. Most images are somewhat anemic when it comes to color... they seem either desaturated, or limited in palette.







Where they depart from each other is in the way that the image is contructed. Geiger's work often contains elements of biomechanics. His world as well as surreal creatures often contain mechanical parts, or are entirely mechanical. Beksinski seems to stick to organic representations. There also seems to be a bit more spirituality to his work. I've noticed many pieces containing crosses, or depictions of scenes with scriptural references. Beksinski also seems to have more of an ability to work in abstract. Images that seem to have no set orientation or rules to bind them.