Untitled 

Editor: Here we have an untitled graphite drawing by Zdzislaw Beksinski. It looks like a landscape, almost otherworldly, rendered with such intense detail and a haunting quality. What strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: Haunting is a good word for it. To me, this drawing feels like peering into the skeletal remains of a forgotten god. Look at the skeletal, towering structure on the left, it seems almost eroded, with a gaping hole at the top. Beksinski often played with architectural forms that feel both familiar and alien, almost like memories of a place we’ve never been. Do you see that play between the organic and the constructed? Editor: I do, especially in the way the lines flow, it feels both very deliberate, like architecture, but also natural like cracks on rocks. Curator: Exactly! And that's where Beksinski really shines, blurring those lines. The graphite creates a texture that feels almost tactile, like you could reach out and feel the cold stone. And consider the lines radiating outward, creating an ethereal light that seems to emanate from behind these forms. It's less about realistic depiction and more about evoking a mood, a feeling of sublime dread. How does it sit with you? Editor: That makes sense. The idea of “sublime dread” feels spot-on. It is beautiful, but also deeply unsettling, that radiation behind, those pillars of stone. It makes you wonder what happened in that world to create it like that. Curator: Yes, that’s the beauty of the piece, and what keeps us all gravitating towards his works: Beksinski never provided concrete narratives. His work invites us to project our own anxieties and interpretations. Art as a Rorschach test, maybe? Editor: I like that. I came in seeing a desolate landscape, but now I’m also thinking about internal landscapes, our own ruins and radiant dark spots. Thanks! Curator: And thank you! A chilling thought to end our tour, indeed.