Untitled 1972

This haunting untitled painting was made by Zdzislaw Beksinski using what looks like oil on canvas. The scene is set in motion with an ark-like structure, battling against an angry sea beneath stormy skies. I imagine Beksinski, layering glazes, scraping back the paint, building up textures to capture this vision. I wonder what he was feeling, what thoughts preoccupied him as he conjured this spectral scene? The darkness of the imagery is inescapable – the looming vessel, the skeletal figure standing by the shore, the flock of crows taking flight. But there’s a strange beauty in the brushwork, the way he makes the light filter through those thick clouds. You can almost feel the cold spray of the waves on your face. Beksinski’s paintings remind me of Goya's, especially his darker works, but Beksinski has his own peculiar, almost gothic, vision. Painting allows for this kind of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, leaving room for multiple interpretations. It is a conversation across time, where painters build upon each other's visions.