Zdzislaw Beksinski, Q9, 1999-2000

132,0 x 98,0 cm - oil, fiberboard signed on the reverse on panel: BEKSIŃSKI Q9

p.g. a sticker with information how to store and maintain the painting



Image reproduced and described:

- Beksinski 2, BoSz 2002, color illustration, p. 77.



The depiction of a frontally framed, monumental figure was created in the mature period of Zdzislaw Beksinski's work. In the 1980s, multithreaded metaphysical landscapes gave way to single motifs subjected to various variations. The most frequently processed was the human figure, which ceased to function as a ghostly hero of the "theater of horror" assuming more and more synthetic, technically demanding forms. The evolution of "Cry-Baby" painting was aptly characterized by Wieslaw Ochman: In a certain period there was a dramatic change in Beksinski's implementation of the image. He began to create, as it were, a spatial grid of intricately drawn lines, which create the impression of three-dimensionality. There is no chiaroscuro at all. He also limited the color palette, narrowing it down to three or four colors, making sensational use of black and various shades of gray. Gone from the works was the plot, which, after all, was not much anyway, one element appeared as the subject of the painting. A cross, a figure, two entwined in an unreal, yet plausible to the imagination embrace, some architecture, a face, a cathedral, monumental and commanding female figures walking straight at the viewer. (W. Ochman, Introduction [in] Beksinski 2, BoSz 2002, p. 6)

In the Q9 painting, the painterly matter is already treated under new rules. Emerging from an indefinite background, the statue impresses with the virtuosity of subtle color transitions that build its volume and monumentalize it. Although there are gesticulating hands protruding from the statue's body, typical of the mechanical-bone arrangements found in paintings of the 1980s, it is an excellent example of the realization of Beksinski's so-called "own form." In an interview he said: I'm going in the direction of a greater simplification of the background, and at the same time a significant deformation of the figures, which are painted without the so-called naturalistic chiaroscuro. Actually, I'm concerned with creating some form of my own. The idea is to make it obvious at first glance that this is a painting made by me (Number his 66, Beksinski in conversation with C.A. Skrobała, "Dziennik Polski" No. 298-1, December 28, 1995). Looking at the work presented in the catalog, there is no doubt that the Master has fully succeeded.



Zdzislaw Beksinski (Sanok 24 II 1929 - Warsaw 21 II 2005) studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology from 1947 to 1952. He was a self-taught artist who achieved an unquestionable position in Polish contemporary art, confirmed by the presence of his works in prestigious exhibitions and museum collections. He was initially involved in photography, which he had been interested in since his student years, after 1956 gaining recognition as a creator of photograms with an aesthetic based on textural effects. In 1958-1962, he created abstract paintings-reliefs of rich texture, mainly metal, which are a variation of matter painting. Toward the end of this period, he created openwork forms with figure shapes and full-bodied sculptures in metal. The next stage of his work was 1962-1974, when he devoted himself mainly to drawing. In the 1960s he drew with pen and ink figural compositions characterized by caricatured deformation of figures. From the late 1960s, he created charcoal and crayon drawings, a monochromatic variant of his parallel painting work. Since 1974, he has dealt almost indivisibly with painting. His distinctive style was based on technical perfection, accompanied by an extraordinary vision. He painted a post-disaster world, marked by the stigma of death and decay. His paintings are populated by figures and creatures with admittedly human or animal shapes, but with the characteristics of phantoms, automatons or decaying corpses. The artist did not give his paintings and drawings titles (except for ordering symbols), thus emphasizing his lack of interest in the literary side of the depictions. He himself said that when painting he completely surrenders to the vision, "photographing" it. In recent years, he has incorporated electronic image generation techniques into his artistic technique, which he used to create computer photomontages. Beksinski's art, which has been exhibited and discussed many times, arouses extreme emotions among experts and the public.
The largest, systematically replenished collection of his works in the country is in the Historical Museum in Sanok, abroad - in Paris, in the possession of Piotr Dmochowski, who has been collecting works and promoting the artist's work since 1983. He organized individual exhibitions of Beksinski's works at, among others, Galerie Valmay in Paris in 1985, 1986 and 1988, as well as a permanent exhibition at Dmochowski's own Galerie - Musée-galerie de Beksinski, which existed from 1989 to 1996. He also published monumental albums of the artist in 1988 and 1991.
In Poland, Beksinski's monograph by Tadeusz Nyczek was published by Arkady in 1989 (second edition in 1992). In the spring of 2005, a major exhibition of Beksinski's paintings took place at the Abbotsford Palace in Gdansk Oliva, and the director of the Sanok Museum Wieslaw Banach published a comprehensive monograph on the artist.

Since October 2016, an exhibition of 250 works (paintings, drawings, photographs) by Zdzislaw Beksinski from the private collection of Anna and Piotr Dmochowski has been permanently installed at the Nowa Huta Cultural Center. Meanwhile, a permanent exhibition of 30 Beksinski paintings from the Dmochowskis' collection has also been on display at the Archdiocese Museum in Warsaw since June 2021.

(Photo: Piotr Dmochowski, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8960820 )