Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929 Sanok, Poland - 2005 Warsaw), Untitled

oil on hardboard, 61 cm x 73 cm, signed on verso, dated 1973, partially retouched, minimal staining, Provenance: Top Art, Warsaw, copy of the bill of sale from 1998 enclosed

We have already been able to sell several works by the Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski very successfully. This work is also from the same creative period as the works already auctioned and shows an equally scary depth of the human world. As with all of Beksinski's works, the artist leaves the interpretation of his work to the viewer himself and so again we can only offer our own interpretation of the meaning and message of his painting. Beksinski's painting is dominated by orange-red colour. This colouring determines the whole picture and is also found in the eyes of the figure positioned in the centre of the picture. Immediately the question arises as to where we are. In the underworld, in a graveyard or on a battlefield after a warlike slaughter? Compared to art historical depictions, the skull at the feet of the crucified Jesus Christ points to the place of Golgotha - the very place outside New Testament Jerusalem where God's Son was crucified. Crucified to take the sins of mankind upon himself and yet to overcome death itself with his love. The figure set here, however, seems huddled in himself, full of fears and questions about what he or she probably did and did not do in life. If lessons have been learned from the past world wars, this painting seems highly topical in view of our present war situation. It throws the viewer back on himself and forces him once again to deal with these questions. Once again, they are questions about life, death, the underworld and the kingdom of heaven - they are questions of faith that he raises and poses directly in his painting in his artistically dramatic and morbid manner.