Life and death are the eternal topics of human beings. We are full of curiosity and fear of death, but we can't really get a glimpse of its mysteries. There was a Polish painter who claimed to have seen hell as it really was.
He was Zisław Bexinsky, known as the "painter of hell". The surrealist painter's work is full of disturbing elements such as skeletons, tombstones, and the end of the world.
And the reason why he was able to depict such a realistic scene of hell was because of a near-death experience. What's going on here?
Bexinski's art style
Beksinski was born in 1929 in Sanok, a small town of peace and quiet in southern Poland. His father was a bank clerk and his mother was a devout Catholic. From an early age, Bexinski showed an interest and talent for art, often immersed in his own imaginary world.
Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and Sarnok was not spared. The sound of gunfire and screams was incessant, and there was an air of fear and despair everywhere. The young Beksinski witnessed the brutality of the war with his own eyes, and left a lingering shadow in his heart.
Later, Beksinski entered the Krakow University of Technology to study architecture, where he graduated with honors thanks to his wisdom and hard work. It can be said that he is a good son after returning from school.
But when Beksinski actually stepped into the construction industry, he realized that the job was completely unsuitable for him. The boring drawings and cumbersome and strict specifications made him feel suffocated. Faced with cold cement and steel every day, his heart yearns for freedom and art.
After much deliberation, Beksinski plucked up the courage to quit his job as an architect and decided to follow his heart and devote himself to art.
At first, Bexsinski experimented with sculpture and photography. He often creates strange and imaginative sculptures from discarded materials on construction sites.
It was also during this period that he became interested in montage photography, sculpture and painting. Beksinski stumbled upon a construction site and began his artistic career.
Beksinski was a decathlon artist who had no formal artistic training and was entirely self-taught. He works primarily on cardboard with oil paintings, occasionally experimenting with acrylic paints.
Bexsinski's early photographic works became the "stepping stones" for his later paintings. He often depicts eccentric wrinkles, desolate landscapes, and still life faces on rough surfaces, elements of which are reflected in his later paintings.
It can be said that Beksinski's photography is a "prequel" to his paintings, which laid the foundation for his later artistic creation.
But despite the indelible impression of the war, he did not directly reflect the trauma in his paintings. This "unusual" artist is disappointed by the "lack of special effects" of the war, which is really laughable.
Beksinski's artistic style can be roughly divided into two periods, each with its own distinctive characteristics.
The works of the first period can be said to be a perfect combination of "magical realism" and "expressionism". It seems to come out of a utopian apocalyptic vision, full of surrealist architectural elements.
As far as the eye can see, the screen is filled with barren ruins, twisted trees, and eerie creatures. This is reminiscent of Kafka's novels, and that suffocating sense of despair comes over the face.
The works of the second period are more abstract, and the characteristics of formalism are more obvious. Bexinski seems to have grown tired of figurative representation and turned to a purer form of art.
He boldly uses color and line to create abstract geometric shapes. These graphics may seem disorganized, but in fact they have a deep philosophical meaning.
No, Beksinski likes to use the term "Baroque" or "Gothic" to describe his painting style. His worlds are full of horror, death, and decay, and there are often gloomy and surreal scenes in the picture, and every detail is depicted in detail.
Bexinski's characters are also very distinctive, often without faces, limbs, or even ugly. It is as if these characters have been dehumanized and reduced to a walking corpse.
They wander blankly in the picture, as if looking for something, but never find it. This state of exhaustion and dementia makes people feel a deep sense of hopelessness and powerlessness.
Although Beksinski's work often seems to have a gloomy and terrifying feel, in private he is a cheerful man with a great sense of humor.
He often laughed at himself and said that his paintings were "used to scare children". In life, he is a man who loves life and is full of passion, which is in stark contrast to his paintings.
A life-changing car accident
In 1958, Bexsinski was out filming and was in a serious car accident on the way. He was hit in the head, blood stained his shirt red, and consciousness blurred.
Ambulances roared and took the dying Beksinski to the hospital. In the operating room, the doctors gathered around him and did their best to save him. But during the operation, Becksinski's heart suddenly stopped beating for a full ten minutes.
The scalpel stopped, and the doctor continued to attach a defibrillator to Bexinski's chest, giving him electric shocks again and again, hoping to get his heart back in the hope of reviving his heartbeat.
A miracle finally happened. At the last moment, Bexinski's heart was beating again. It was as if he had walked from the land of death and had been pulled back into the world.
When he opened his eyes, he muttered the word "hell" in his mouth, and then collapsed again into a coma. At the bedside, the doctor and family looked at each other, wondering what the young man had experienced during his near-death experience.
This accident became a turning point in Bexsinski's life. After struggling back from the brink of death, his temperament and art style changed drastically. The once gentle young man became more and more silent, and there was an indescribable gloom in his eyes.
After the car accident, Beksinski began his most famous series "The World After Death". This series of works is the pinnacle of his artistic career and a true portrayal of his inner fear and despair.
In this series, we see countless gruesome and shocking images: hideous skeletons, crumbling tombstones, apocalyptic ruins, twisted human bodies...... It's like being in purgatory, and there's nowhere to escape.
Bexinski's Hell is a lifeless, lifeless world. The sky is forever gloomy and gray, and the land is barren. The ruined buildings were scattered among the ruins like the remains of giant beasts. Mountains of skeletons and bones piled up, and despair and fear pervaded every corner.
These horrific images are actually derived from Bexinski's real feelings during his near-death experience. "I saw the endless pain and despair, the dead languishing in the flames. It was a world where there was no hope, only punishment. He wrote in his diary.
In that crash, Beksinski suffered a full ten minutes of cardiac arrest. In these short ten minutes, he felt like he had entered another dimension and witnessed the true face of hell.
There is no light, no hope, only eternal darkness and pain. This experience left a deep impression on him and has since become the source of his artistic creation.
Real-life suffering
Beksinski's obsession with death and hell stems not only from that near-death experience, but also from his tragic life.
In 1998, Bexinski's favorite wife, Zofia, died of cancer, plunging him into deep grief. They have been together for decades, and Zofia has been his strongest backing and muse of inspiration.
Having lost his beloved, Bexinski felt the sky fall. He washed his face with tears all day long, and it was difficult to wield his brush. During that time, his painting style also became more and more gloomy and obscure.
Unexpectedly, bad luck followed. On Christmas Eve the following year, Beksinski's only son, Tomaz, committed suicide. This bad news was like a thunderbolt from the sky, completely crushing this old man who had experienced vicissitudes of life.
During his lifetime, Thomas was a popular radio host who won the hearts of his listeners with his sharp and humorous conversation.
Under his glamorous appearance, he has suffered from depression for a long time. The moment Beksinski found his son's body, his world collapsed. He once said that he was never afraid of death itself, only the process of death and the pain of losing loved ones. Now, both fears are coming to him at the same time.
Beksinski, who lost his wife and children, was traumatized both physically and mentally. He became more and more withdrawn, locking himself in the studio all day long, using his brush to vent his inner sorrow.
Friends advised him to come out of the gloom and start his life again, but Beksinski said: "My life is over, all that remains is the walking dead."
In February 2005, Beksinski was brutally murdered in his apartment in Warsaw. The killer was the son of his housekeeper, a 19-year-old young man named Robert Kupitz. Before the crime, the young man had borrowed money from Beksinski, but when he refused, he held a grudge.
On that day, taking advantage of Beksinski's unpreparedness, he broke into the apartment and frantically stabbed the unarmed old man with a knife. Beksinski was stabbed 17 times, two of which were fatal. In this way, the long-suffering artist ended his life in a tragic way at the age of 75.
Kupitz was later sentenced to 25 years in prison, but what does that mean? Great artists have left this world forever and can no longer create those amazing works.
Epilogue:
Zisław Bexinski's picture of hell is both a catharsis of personal suffering and a reflection on human suffering. Art originates from pain, but it goes beyond pain. It makes us look at fear, but it gives us hope.
In a surreal way, Beksinski confronts death and the misery of life. Live in the moment, because no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or the unexpected. Life is fragile and suffering is everywhere, but we can still find seeds of hope in the ruins.
Resources
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1667481230051268624&wfr=spider&for=pc
https://www.thecollector.com/zdzislaw-beksinski-the-dystopian-surrealist-painter-you-should-know/
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/poland/articles/the-tragic-story-of-zdzislaw-beksinski-the-artist-who-inspired-guillermo-del-toro
https://surrealismtoday.com/zdzislaw-beksinski/
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zdzis%C5%82aw_Beksi%C5%84ski
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