Zdzisław Beksiński was a Polish born painter, photographer, and sculptor. In his early adult life he studied architecture and for a brief time was a construction site supervisor where he would often use leftover and discarded material to create sculptures. Unhappy with his career, he went on to focus on some seriously iconic and unique artwork, primarily his paintings known for their "dystopian realism."

Before his tragic murder in 2005, Beksiński was no stranger to death and misfortune. His wife, Zofia, died in 1998; a year later, on Christmas Eve, his son Tomasz committed suicide. Despite his grim artwork and his unfortunate life events, Beksiński was described as "a pleasant person who took enjoyment from conversation and had a keen sense of humor." Today, while we look at his intriguing art, we are left to interpret at will, because Beksiński himself was not fond of offering answers to what his work "meant."

Broken without you.

The pain of losing the love of your life must be unbearable.

Inescapable

Morbid and horrifying.

Through the glass.

Is there always another way? Another path?

Weary Traveller

Judgment is all around us.

Apocalypse

A dark desert or a lonely post-apocalyptic scene?

Approach

If you could walk up to a wall of death, would you?

Creeping.

What is this burden on the artist's soul?

A graveyard?

Or a hill with countless portals to Hell?

Don't walk alone at night.

Dark, mysterious figures loom in so much of his artwork.

Something divine.

Or evil, we're not sure. Maybe a little bit of both.

A pale rider.

Death, loss, longing. Is this piece of artwork a symbol from his life experiences? We will never know.

Fire and creatures.

If this wasn't a polish painting, you might think it was an art board from an upcoming horror flick or video game. It's dark and eerie.

Painful truth

We find ourselves wondering if this art is symbolic of Beksiński finding his son's corpse? He reportedly never came to terms with the death/suicide.

Blind

A guide, a voice, watching over?

Is this a mental photograph of a nightmare?

Or a fleeting thought of death and repair?

The dead approach.

Demons of your nightmares crowd in around you... you'd wake up breathless, gasping for air.

Torture

Sometimes the most pain in our lives comes from within.

The dead have to go somewhere.

War and death are feeding someone. Perhaps he knew this more than others at the time.

War

War is death. Nothing but death.

Ever present demon.

Guiding the young, tortured soul.

Archaic Ruins

Eventually all of our beautiful buildings will be ancient ruins, a depiction of the war we sought on this globe.

Alone in a field of bones.

Horrifying imagery.

There is almot too much to unpack here.

You could look at this for hours, days, or weeks, and probably still not see every intricate and terrifying detail.

Red and flesh.

What ran through his mind when he painted this?

Created creatures of the darkness.

Looming in the night, looking or hunting...