ARTISTIC DESTINY OF ZDZISŁAW BEKSIŃSKI
The story of the artist's life is extraordinary. He was born into a prominent family of engineers and entrepreneurs. The painter was supposed to be an architect, but against his father's wishes, he became an artist. He graduated from the University of Technology, however, art was always present in his life. Later – against the will of critics – the artist became one of the most outstanding contemporary surrealists in the world. His extremely rare early works do not only trace his striving for mastery but also mark the artist's life tragically cut short. Zdzisław Beksiński, because he is the man in question, could not escape his artistic destiny. Meanwhile, his works are sought after by the most prominent collectors.
The presented pastel bouquet, dated to 1948, constitutes an early trace of the life of 19-year-old Beksiński. In 1947, the artist graduated from high school majoring in math and physics and passed the final exams. He dreamed of studying at the Academy of Fine Arts or at a film school. Beksiński passed the admission exam, which was very difficult at that time, but at the instigation of his father he began studying at the Faculty of Architecture of the Krakow University of Technology. In 1948, he was a first-year student – young Beksiński lived in Krakow at that point. The presented work was probably created during his visit to the family home in Sanok.
Zdzisław Beksiński was born in 1929 in Sanok, where his family lived for several generations. Mateusz Beksiński (actually Bexa), the great-grandfather of the famous painter, was the first to settle in the town. In the 1940s, he founded the Boiler Works, which was later turned into a carriage and bus factory “Autosan". Zdzisław's grandfather, Władysław, was an urban architect who designed numerous buildings in the town. Stanisław Beksiński, father of Zdzisław, was a soldier of the Haller's Army and a land surveyor who died in 1953. He worked in the construction department of the municipal administration. From the middle of the 19th century until the end of the 1970s, as many as five generations of the Beksiński family lived in a house at former Świerczewski Street. It was there that the presented still life was created.
When painting the bouquet of flowers, Beksiński applied a characteristic technique reminiscent of French pointillism. The artist used the same method in a well-known portrait of his father reading a newspaper. The painting is also signed in the identical way, with the notation of the town of Sanok. This neo-impressionist style, which was peculiar for the end of the 19th century, was "invented" by the French painter Georges Seurat. It was characterized by minor patches of pure, saturated colors that merged in the viewer's eye, allowing the artist to capture the unique elusiveness of light. Seurat's pointillism had many followers, e.g. Pissarro, van Gogh, Gauguin, or Matisse. Pointillism was popular throughout the entire 20th century and has manifested itself in the works of artists from all over the world. We can find its traces in both early and later works of, among others, Wojciech Fangor.