Painter, graphic artist and photographer. Graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. Self-taught artist. Between 1953 and 1959, Beksiński created photographs inspired by inter-war photography and photographic modernism. Between 1957 and 1960, he was a member of an informal photography group (together with Jerzy Lewczyński and Bronisław Schlabs). Their creative work was an attempt to follow Otto Steinert`s subjective photography movement. The first joint exhibition was organised at the Gallery of Modern Art in Warsaw in 1959. At the end of the 1950s, he abandoned photography and devoted himself to painting. In the 1960s, Beksiński searched for creative inspiration in symbolism and naturalism, which was reflected in his drawings and graphic works. From the mid 1970s, he almost exclusively created oil paintings. In the collages Beksiński made before his death, he used computer techniques. The artist exhibited in France, Germany, Belgium and Japan as well as at in almost all of the important centres in Poland. The Historical Museum Sanok, which has the largest collection of Beksiński`s works, prepared his greatest retrospective in 1999.
1959
heliography, gelatin silver print, 38 x 28.5 cm,
date and author`s stamp on the reverse,
unique object
vintage print
Exhibition: Zdzisław Beksiński. Prints on Paper 1957-1962, State Art Gallery, Sopot (2004). Also published in the exhibition catalogue.
Provenance: collection of Marek Piasecki.
Painter, graphic artist and photographer. Graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. Self-taught artist. Between 1953 and 1959, Beksiński created photographs inspired by inter-war photography and photographic modernism. Between 1957 and 1960, he was a member of an informal photography group (together with Jerzy Lewczyński and Bronisław Schlabs). Their creative work was an attempt to follow Otto Steinert`s subjective photography movement. The first joint exhibition was organised at the Gallery of Modern Art in Warsaw in 1959. At the end of the 1950s, he abandoned photography and devoted himself to painting. In the 1960s, Beksiński searched for creative inspiration in symbolism and naturalism, which was reflected in his drawings and graphic works. From the mid 1970s, he almost exclusively created oil paintings. In the collages Beksiński made before his death, he used computer techniques. The artist exhibited in France, Germany, Belgium and Japan as well as at in almost all of the important centres in Poland. The Historical Museum Sanok, which has the largest collection of Beksiński`s works, prepared his greatest retrospective in 1999.