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Polish Painter Who Learned To “Photograph Dreams” – His Works Will Give You Nightmares
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Let us take you on a journey through the curious drawing ideas of a Polish artist, Zdzisław Beksiński, who made a name for himself with his dystopian surrealism paintings, filled with post-apocalyptic imagery and creatures that come straight out of nightmares.
The artist is no longer with us to better explain the vast roster of over 300 of his scary drawings, but he used to say: "I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams. And that is exactly what popped into my head when I first saw his creepy pictures. Even though they utilize recognizable everyday objects, those are paired and arranged in ways only the dream world could sustain in a single image.
These unseen combinations gave birth to mind-bending scenarios, building an anxious feeling while looking at them. The cool drawings are beautifully abstract, yet they have the power to invoke real-world references, making them even creepier. The artist's explanation? Well, it may lie in these cryptic words: "What matters is what appears in your soul, not what your eyes see and what you can name."
Now scroll down for a dose of scary monsters and demon drawings below.
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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Beautiful. There are no words that could describe the feeling this gives me.
Sex? This is more like gas chamber in concentration camp during the WW II.
I think it's safe to say at this point that... Even if his work is good... He needs to get some help
This adds a really creepy dimension to the Graves opening up an souls going up into heaven.
This is the face referenced in the Beatles tune, "Eleanor Rigby." "Wearing the face she keeps in a jar by the door."
I love how with each painting you think you can try and figure out what is going on. But it's painted with a way to where you truly can never understand it. And are completely lost, test dumbfounded and put in a state of thought that's as eerie as any nightmarish dream you've ever experienced. He conveys so much essence of a nightmare. How does he do this?! I want to meet this guy!
I believe its safe to say that WWII played a major part in the artist's outlook of the universe. The destruction caused by the Nazis, and then the Soviets were horrible and must have had an everlasting impression on him. After all, he was only 11 when the war began, and 16 when it ended with occupation. No wonder he was so happy on the outside and so preoccupied with death and destruction in his subconscious, which found its way into his art.
This is not entirely true. He was often asked about the war's influence on his work and this is what he said in one of the interviews (rough translation from Polish): "I was 10 when the war began. I was raised on comic books, death rays and Martians so I expected that war will bring spectacular experiences. Yet, war in my opinion as a child was just a change of the officials and bad food. Then it's rather difficult to admit I'm painting the catastrophe of war that I remember from childhood. Honestly speaking, I was actually disappointed with the lack of *special effects*. That's the way I'd put it. Of course I saw the dead and I survived the longlasting front, but for children such things are like water off duck's back." (quote from his art dealer's site http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/introduction.php)
I'm not saying there's no way the war had anything to do with what Beksiński painted. The thing is most of his life people kept asking him about it assuming there's no other way such visions could have been created. People keep putting words into his mouth without any research on the subject. "He was a child during the war? He paints creepy images? It must be the trauma!!!" it's a very easy explanation for a very complex thing.
I thought the same thing as John L -- Poland's long string of national disasters during the last 200 years after the dismemberment of the once powerful Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1790s on to the fall of Communism certainly would have been an influence, even if only subconsciously. But thanks Zuzanna for setting the record straight. One can just observe the harsh aspects of earthly life ("harsh" from a humanist perspective) such as the fall of Pompeii or post Hiroshima, and that's enough to bring about bleak visions.
No idea a human could reflect the perspective of the universe instead of a country or planet. Well, if you want to believe go ahead.
"Nazis"? The destruction was done by the (((Allies))). The Soviets raped and pillaged what remained.
On one hand, it could be subconscious - he wouldn't even realise. On the other hand, imagination works wonders and having dreams based on war doesn't necessarily mean you've actually experienced it/had trauma. Of course it is part of his past, but many times imagination takes you in far off places. For example, I have quite vivid and "creepy" dreams (since he paints about his dreams), but I've not experienced war. However, many things can lead to such depictions. I often dream of death (not a fear of mine tho), due to my father having been very sick as a child. As a child I never really realised the full impact, this only really happened many years later and only then did I have nightmares of it - never as a child. There are also small things that may happen in life that your brain turns into scary happenings - i.e. fear of being trapped, of being lost etc. and often your brain takes things it has seen and recreates this "creepy" dream.