Biography of Polish artists

Kamil Slivinsky, curator of the Bexine exhibition in Warsaw. However, for a long time his name was not known even in Poland. Why was it and what changed? Tatyana Kuchinskaya spoke about the fate of the artist, the legends surrounding his family, as well as about his work with a popularizer of culture and curator of the Bexinsky in Warsaw, Tatyana Kuchinskaya.

Tatyana Kuchinskaya: Why did you decide to engage in the popularization of the work of Zdzislav Bakensky? Kamil Slivinsky: I have long liked his work. In the year, I met with the Parisian collector of Bexinsky Peter Dmokhovsky. It was a sign meeting that approved me in the desire to popularize the artist. Then his name was well known only to people engaged and interested in visual arts.

I wanted to somehow change it. After all, Beksinsky was a unique artist, very efficient - he left behind one and a half thousand paintings, many drawings, several dozen sculptures, avant -garde photographs. I decided to create pages dedicated to Bexinsky on social networks, since no one has done this professionally until then. Zdzislav Bexinsky, e. CS: yes.

I worked a lot in corporations, I know how to engage in promotion. Perhaps that is why everything worked out. Almost eight years have passed since then, and now there are huge communities about Beksinsky - on Facebook about half a million subscribers, on Instagram of thousands, several thousand on Twitter. Of great interest in the personality of the artist was also attracted by the book of Magdalena Gzhebalkovskaya “Bexinsky.

Double portrait ”, the film“ Last Family ”, in which the artist was played by an outstanding actor Andrzej Severin. Zdzislav Bexinsky. Source: Private collection of TC: What is the uniqueness of the Bexinsky? KS: He is one of the brightest artists of Poland. When Beksinsky began, almost no one worked in such a genre. There were several artists-surrealists, but their work was not so “gone”-in a good way-like him.

Beksinsky was original. He did not receive an art education. He was not in the Union of Polish artists. He was not digested by critics. He did not even come to the opening of his exhibitions. Very rarely gave an interview. And, despite this, in the years of his work they were very well sold. He was on his own, but at the same time he had everything. Source: Private collection of TC: Probably, Beksinsky, along with Mateiko, is now the most popular Polish artist in the world?

KS: It seems to me, yes. In recent years, books have been published, exhibitions have been held, fiction and documentary films have been shot. I think that my work also contributes to this, because we have millions of coverage in social networks. I think if you stop the passerby in Poland and ask to name the most famous of our artists, most likely the names of Yana Mateiko and Zdzislav Bexinsky will sound - especially if you ask the younger generation.

His work is post -apocalyptic, joyless, but it attracts people. TC: Yes, the work of Bexinsky is gloomy and sinister. What was he man? KS: There were legends that the Bexine family was cursed, that his son Tomash, who was constantly worn by a black cloak with a hood, was sleeping in a coffin. But these were just gossip that appeared due to the fact that their family lived quite solitary.

In fact, Zdzislav was very positive and cheerful - not the same as his paintings. Source: A private collection, he was a pleasant person, smart, well -read. He loved music: in his youth he listened to rock, at the end of his life he was fond of classic. Incredibly creative - tried himself in photography, drawing, heliography, heliotip, avant -garde sculpture, in the later years - in computer graphics.

Beksinsky was looking for a way out of his creative potential in various forms and at the same time behaved like an ordinary person. Some artists are eccentric, love to appear in public, dressed brightly, want to be on the covers of magazines. Beksinsky was an introvert, perfectionist, preferred to sit at home, to create in his small world. Source: Private collection of TC: What did he write about in the diaries?

KS: He described everything, left four thousand pages of diaries. He wrote in detail about how he woke up and what the weather outside the window, about his classes, listed who came to him. In the year, he bought a camera and, until his wife’s death, shot everything around. For example, he worked, then got up and began to shoot: such a day, the time, such and such a picture, is not sure that I finished, I will still finalize.

He was obsessed with creativity. He even took off the funeral of the mother -in -law and the death of Zofya's wife. By the way, it is not customary to talk about these facts. Beksinsky left behind three hundred hours of videos, which he bequeathed to the historical museum in his hometown of Sanka. Source: Private collection of TC: You mentioned the sled. Why did the artist move to Warsaw?

KS: In the X power, Sanoka was preparing for the visit of the communist authorities. The Bucksin house stood on one of the central streets. Because of his dilapidation, the demolition order came out. Zdzislav thought it was a chance to escape from his native places.Sanka is a small city in the southeast of Poland, while the artist could not even buy materials for work there. Beksinsky decided that this was an opportunity to move to a big city, and the whole family - Zdzislav, his wife Zofya, son of Tomash, mother and mother -in -law - moved to Warsaw.

For the house received from the Sanok authorities, they bought an apartment for the house, and later purchased housing for their son. Zdzislav Beksinsky, self -portrait, - KS: his great -grandfather opened a blacksmith workshop in Sanok, which over the years was transformed into the Autosan bus factory. The Grandfather of Beksinsky was a city architect and designer of many buildings.

The market square, the town hall and other important objects were created according to the projects of his grandfather. Zdzislav’s father was a respected geodezist engineer and juror. In Sanok, Bakensky had a hard time. In his diaries, he wrote that everyone poked his finger at him: they say, look at what outstanding people your great -grandfather, grandfather and father were, and you only draw.

The glory of the Bexinsky in the sleigh interfered with him, he wanted to escape from her. In Warsaw, he liked that no one knew him there. KS: practically nothing. He very rarely commented on his works, did not even give them names. In the diaries he wrote that his paintings should be shown without descriptions and without dates. From the very beginning, Beksinsky purposefully avoided creating any context for his works, including in conversations with loved ones.

For example, the cross in his paintings is not connected with religion, and coffins and bones are not a reference to the times of war. He wanted to leave the audience space for fantasy. By the way, once he was asked about the image of crosses. He said that in Poland crosses are found every hundred to two hundred meters, and it is strange if they are not in the paintings.

Exhibition "Bexinsky in Warsaw." He even photographed the process. He invited his friends to the garden of his house, folded his work and set them on fire. But not the most personal, but the worst paintings. The best paintings by the Bexinsky took to Warsaw, but they could not take everything away, because the apartment in the capital was much smaller than the house in Sanok. Source: Private collection of TC: What artists influenced the work of Bexinsky?

KS: He wrote that he was not looking for inspiration from the outside. Beksinsky did not go to museums and was not inspired by paintings by other artists, although he loved the work of Alexander Herimsky and Arthur Grottger. In his works we see a world created by imagination from scratch. KS: In the X years, Beksinsky made a lot of avant -garde, erotic photographs of his wife. They are still highly valued, some believe that he is a more talented photographer than an artist.

And at the time when Beksinsky worked in the design bureau of the Autosan plant, he painted drawings with erotic scenes and handed them out to his colleagues. Then Zdzislav became interested in sadomasochistic drawings, and at the end of his life he wrote that he was interested in pornography. The Museum of the Archbishop of Warsaw agreed. Zdzislav was amazed.