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An image of a Statue of Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski in Sanok. Photo by By Lowdown.

Top 10 Remarquable Facts About Zdzislaw Beksinki

Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski is the most famous Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor, specializing in the field of dystopian surrealism.

 His surreal visions of nightmares, death, and passing have become a permanent part of Polish culture.

Beksi艅ski made his paintings and drawings in either a Baroque or a Gothic manner.

Below are some of the most remarkable known facts about Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski;

1.He was Born in Sanok, Poland

A panoramic view of Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski home town of SanoK. Photo by Silar.

Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski was on 24^th February 1929 in Sanok, a small town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of south-eastern Poland with 38,397 inhabitants, as of June 2016.

Its located on the San River and around 52 km south of Przemy艣l, Sanok lies directly by the Carpathian Mountains. Southern Poland.

2. He Studied Architecture At The AGH University in Krakow

He studied architecture at Krak贸w Polytechnic in 1947, finishing his studies in 1952.

After high school graduation, he applied for both architecture and fine arts.

However, he chose the architect鈥檚 career path and after many years he hated architecture so much and said that architecture is a plan, a project, and a boring mechanical saw execution.

 He returned to Sanok in 1955, working as a construction site supervisor, but found that he did not enjoy it. During this period, he had an interest in montage photography, sculpting, and painting.

When he first started sculpting, he often used his construction site materials for his medium. His early photography was a precursor to his later paintings, often depicting peculiar wrinkles, desolate landscapes, and still-life faces on rough surfaces.

3. He Worked For Polish Bus and Coach Manufacture As A Visual Artist

During 1959-1970 he worked at Autosan,  a Polish bus and coach manufacturer, as a visual artist, a person responsible for bus design.

Most of his projects, after creating prototypes, did not enter into production. He worked part-time for six hours a day and he had free Saturdays. He devoted the remaining time to his artistic activity.

His paintings often depict anxiety, such as torn doll faces, or faces erased or obscured by bandages wrapped around the portrait. His main focus was on abstract painting, although it seems his works in the 1960s were inspired by surrealism

4. He was A Well-Known Photographer

An Auto Potrait, showing his creative photography. Photo By Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski.

Although he is a well-known painter, his career began with photography.

 Formally he even belonged to the Polish Photographic Society in Sanok in 1955, and three years later he also joined the Union of Polish Art Photographers with ID number 鈥� 237.

5. He Declined a Scholarship to The Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1961

In 1960, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) took place in Poland. As part of it, invited critics from around the world also visited Cracow and the biennial dedicated to graphics, the exhibition of folk art and painting which were prepared for that occasion.

One of the exhibitions was prepared by the Polish member of AICA Janusz Bogucki and Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski took part in it. The exhibition was visited by the president of AICA and the director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, James Johnson Sweeney, and he offered Beksi艅ski a scholarship. However, the artist refused to leave Poland.

He refused to travel with Bogucki because he could not understand that Beksinki had a eudemonistic point of view.

Beksinki used to do what he like but not what he needed.

6. He Suffered From Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder   

Many of his Neuroses had changed over the years, but since his youth, neurotic diarrhea dominated his life and remained constant.

Hence his reluctance to travel remains indifferent whether the journey concerns deportation to Siberia or yacht trips around the world.

He feared anything that could separate him from his base, a house or an apartment that he owns, it could expose him to a specific conditioned nervous tension.

For this reason, he tried to avoid any changes, travels, unannounced visits, or unexpected events as often as possible.

For this reason, he tried to avoid any changes, travels, unannounced visits, or unexpected events as often as possible.

7. He Was Passionate About Computers.

His interest began in 1986 with Casio minicomputers, and since then he was buying every new product entering the IT market, and he distributed older items to his family and friends.

In Poland at that time, he had the most modern equipment, and his knowledge was comparable to the expertise of qualified IT specialists.

8. He Created Arts Using New Technologies Using Photocopying Techniques

He was experimenting and creating art using new technologies, and He started with a photocopying technique.

This allowed him to make some variants. For example, some characters had some common elements, but the rest were different. A whole cycle of figures sitting and talking was created.

Despite initial skepticism, Beksi艅ski exhibited pictures in Tadeusz Nyczek鈥檚 gallery and earned over PLN 40 million on them.

Another new form he used was a photomontage technique. Beksi艅ski photographed various fragments of reality while hoping that later they would be useful for creating photomontages. Five photomontage exhibitions were held in Poland, but no one was interested in buying them. Beksi艅ski distributed floppies for free with his works.

9. He Was Shy and He Owned 鈥淒omestic Animals鈥�

Although his art is grim, he was a pleasant person with keen humor.

He has never attended any of his openings and exhibitions because he could not stand such situations.

However, he did not have a bigger problem with interviews, he was interviewed at least once each year.

Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski was a very prolific artist, usually creating several dozens of works a year. Most of them he sold or tried to sell or give away to family and friends.

However, he left some of them for himself hanging them on the walls of his flat or in the apartment of his son Tomasz.

 He called this private collection 鈥渄omestic animals鈥�.

10. He Left Artistic Legacy in Sanok, Poland

A 1978 Oil painting depicting some of his legacy works. Photo By Zdzis艂aw Beksi艅ski.

Beksi艅ski was stabbed to death at his Warsaw apartment in February 2005, by a 19-year-old acquaintance from Wo艂omin, after he refused to lend him money.

In 2006, The City Art of Cz臋stochowa opened with a museum housing 50 paintings and 120 drawings from the Dmochowski collection, which owns the biggest private collection of Beksi艅ski’s art.

On 19 May 2012, The New Gallery was opened to the public.

 A ‘Beksi艅ski cross’, in the characteristic T-shape, was installed for Burning Man to honor the artistic memory.