Untitled 1995

This painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski is rendered in washed-out browns and beiges, giving it a kind of ancient, fossilized feel. I imagine Beksinski building up the surface, maybe scratching into it, letting the image emerge slowly. There’s a stark cross at the center, but it doesn't feel like a symbol so much as a structure, maybe something eroded by time or scarred by some unknown event. He probably wasn’t thinking about beauty, more like bearing witness to a world after something catastrophic has happened. The paint looks thin, almost like a stain, which adds to the feeling of decay. I wonder if he was looking at Goya’s dark paintings, or maybe some of the surrealists? Artists are always in conversation, you know, riffing off each other, even across centuries. This painting is less about answers and more about a feeling of unease, inviting you to bring your own story to it.