What I’ve got to appreciate in my car journeys, is
how Catholic Poland really is —so densely Catholic in fact, that a Google map showing Catholic parishes in the country has barely any empty space.
Whether it’s a church building, a cross-roads wayside chaplet or a statue on a green mound in the middle of nowhere…there’s always a prayer reminder within metres.
While in Sanok, the no.1 thing to do is visit the Royal Castle and see the special gallery wing dedicated to Zdzislaw Beksinki – a 20thC Polish painter, photographer and sculptor, specializing in the field of dystopian surrealism. (Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society).
Beksiński had no formal training as an artist. He was a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow Polytechnic with a Master of Science received in 1952. Beksiński undertook painting with a passion, working intensely and only whilst listening to classical music. He soon became the leading figure in contemporary Polish art.
5/10/17 Sanok and surrounds
October 6, 2017
Sanok, in south-eastern Poland lies directly below the Carpathian Mountains. Once settled by Poles, Jews and Lemkos (a minority group within the Ukrainian community), the town’s history goes back almost 1000 years when it was part of a medieval trade route. The region also features a 70km trail for hikers and cyclists.I spent some time travelling around villages looking for old wooden Medieval churches, deeply influenced by the Greco-Catholic and Orthodox presence in the region.Some display a Greek Cross and onion domes, but the most interesting of the churches combine these features with the Roman forms with elongated naves and steeples. Also some lovely old wooden houses…
In the late 1960s, Beksiński entered what he himself called his “fantastic period”, which lasted up to the mid-1980s. This is his best-known period, during which he created very disturbing images, showing a gloomy, surrealistic environment with very detailed scenes of death, decay, landscapes filled with skeletons, deformed figures and deserts. These paintings were quite detailed, painted with his trademark precision. At the time, Beksiński claimed, “I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams”. He credited music as his main source of inspiration. Beksiński avoided concrete analysis of the content of his work, saying “I cannot conceive of a sensible statement on painting”. He was especially dismissive of those who sought or offered simple answers to what his work ‘meant’.
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