Untitled 

Curator: Here we have an untitled oil painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski. What catches your eye? Editor: A gateway, glowing unnaturally. It’s starkly at odds with the morbid scenery. Death seems to lurk everywhere here, but all the viewer's focus is funneled towards this aperture of brilliant light in the gloom. Curator: Beksinski's lack of titles complicates interpretation, doesn’t it? The artist seems less concerned with telling us what to see, and more interested in generating raw emotive responses. It’s fascinating how galleries navigate presenting art that's so… deliberately devoid of context. Editor: The lack of context might be the whole point. Those gravestones… that ominous shape on top of the gate - they contribute to a sense of unease, but I feel like they're not tied to any specific place or story. This landscape exists solely in the realm of archetypes. A skull and crossbones would've felt less… elemental. Curator: The overt symbols give way to something primordial. He seems concerned with mortality. A pre-occupation with death might also have roots in the cultural moment in which Beksinski worked. Don't forget, Poland at this time was very much stuck in the clutches of Soviet communism, creating both physical and psychological restrictions that may well be the context from which Beksinski sought a purely imagined art divorced from social realism and communist approval. Editor: The winged figures are evocative of the same themes that were present during Romanticism: spirituality, mythology, memory and death. Notice, however, that the form of a concrete symbol that appears so vividly is being transformed by our subconscious. It seems that, beyond historical or cultural interpretations, this surrealist picture has been devised with something else in mind, that might be linked with his personal experiences, such as childhood. Curator: It’s that lack of imposed narrative, maybe even the painting’s roughness, that allows for these diverse interpretations to resonate with such force, isn't it? Beksinski presents us with no one obvious theme and opens multiple avenues for psychological exploration. Editor: I came away feeling unsettled, but strangely contemplative. Maybe it’s the sense of journey… of transition, but it's one that might mean very different things for all of us.