Art Bleeds in the Mid Modern Shadow of War

     Death was on the minds of many after World War II.  The recoil and reconstruction process left after the horrific crimes committed by the Nazis left the world and the popular culture wounded in an irreversible way.

Beksiński

    One of the best examples of the cultural wound left by WWII is the haunting, disturbing, and outright bloodcurdling paintings created by Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński.  He was born in Sanok, Poland in 1929, a city whose population was nearly 30% Jewish at the time, leading to Beksiński as a child having front row seats to the atrocities committed during the war.  Beksiński is most well known for his self-proclaimed "Fantastic Series", an array of paintings created from the late 1960s to the early 1980s that depict breathtaking and horrific landscapes.  His unique brand of gothic surrealism leaves one hell of an impression on whoever lays eyes on his work, his level of detail is nearly beyond comprehension on first viewing.  

    Beksiński was famously against finding meaning in his art and seeing no point in trying to find one definite meaning or theme in his art, quoted as saying: 

    "...paintings are to be admired or contemplated, admired without asking what it means.  If I had something to say I would write it down or say it.  I don't need painting for that."

    As part of his philosophy, all of Beksiński's paintings are untitled, which made researching specific pieces done by him the biggest pain of my academic career and also serves to support his philosophy.  You are not meant to walk away from Beksiński's work with some profound knowledge or great assertion from the artist in your mind, you are meant to marvel at the imagery and creativity, admire the skill, and nothing more.  I am not going to disrespect the man's legacy by trying to analyze any meanings from the presented works, but I am going to highlight a couple of running themes that appear in many of his works that relate back to the cultural wound left in the wake of WWII.

Untitled, Zdzisław Beksiński, Oil on Hardboard, 1971, Poland

Untitled, Zdzisław Beksiński, Oil on Hardboard, Date Unknown, Poland

    One of the more obvious themes that permeate Beksiński's art is how he depicts anatomy and the human form.  In his entire catalog of work, there are very few instances of an entire, intact human.  The anatomy is always twisted in some way, melting into the landscape, obscured by cloaks or shadows, or missing body parts.  Their form is always extremely gaunt, emaciated skin stretched over brittle bones with sunken eyes and often too many or too little fingers.   It's not a stretch to assume that Beksiński is making visual references to the victims of the Holocaust in these pieces.  The bony anatomy used in his art a clear mirror to the starved and emaciated masses that were tortured in the Nazi extermination camps during the war.  

    The other main theme that makes itself apparent as you look through his gallery is the color blue.  More specifically, a shade of blue, Prussian Blue.  Prussian blue is named for the use of Prussic Acid to help give it its deep blue pigment.  However, Prussic Acid is also known as Hydrogen Cyanide, one of the main ingredients in the pesticide Zyklon B, which was used by the Nazis in gas chambers inside of extermination camps.  The Prussic Acid used as a base for the poison resulted in a deep blue stain appearing on the inside walls of the chambers, which appears to be what Beksiński is referencing in his more morbid pieces.

Untitled, Zdzisław Beksiński, Oil on Hardboard, 1974, Poland

    Also a small side note, in the piece pictured above there is the Latin phrase "In Hoc Signo Vinces", which translates to "In this sign thou shalt conquer".  The phrase has been used for a myriad of purposes throughout history, however, relating it back to Beksiński's themes, it was most prominently used by the American Nazi Party at the same time Beksiński was painting.

    I absolutely adore Beksiński's work.  His use of detail and anatomy is astounding and I have nothing but respect for his philosophy surrounding the works.  While I do think that art should have some sort of message or emotion to convey, the level of skill and imagination on display lets it say that it doesn't have anything to say.

Sources:

Hewlett, Denholm. “[Art] Zdzisław Beksiński (1929 - 2005).” Psychic Garden, Psychic Garden, 31 Oct. 2020, www.the-psychic-garden.com/post/art-zdzis%C5%82aw-beksi%C5%84ski-the-nightmare-artist-1929-2005.

“The Nightmare Artist.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRB4sdbIcw.

Rogers, Thomas. “Art from the Holocaust: The Stories behind the Images.” BBC Culture, BBC, 3 Feb. 2016, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160203-art-from-the-holocaust-the-stories-behind-the-images.