Untitled 1993

This untitled drawing by Zdzislaw Beksinski is a real head-scratcher, isn't it? It's all scratchy lines and haunted shadows, like something you'd find in a forgotten corner of your mind. I imagine Beksinski hunched over this thing, wrestling with the image. The paper probably felt rough under his hand, as he layered up these marks, building this strange, elongated head out of nothing. He's got those tightly-drawn eyes, thin almost like wire, and that grim little mouth. The guy looks trapped, doesn't he? Like he's peering out at us from some other dimension. It reminds me a little of Goya's darker stuff, all those weird psychological portraits. Artists have always been drawn to the unsettling and the uncanny. It's a way of talking about the things we can't quite name. And that's the joy of drawing, right? You start with nothing, and you end up with something that makes you feel, makes you think, makes you question everything.