Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Dream Within A Dream Zdzisław Beksiński

Dearest hearts,

If you read my post about the Zdzisław Beksiński Exhibition I went last year, you probably remember me being very enthusiastic :) Well guess what? Now I am jumping for joy as the NCK (Cracow’s Nowa Huta Cultural Centre) will open a permanent gallery! Let me tell you more directly from their Facebook page:

"They didn’t want him in Warsaw, although Kraków (Cracow) embraced him. A new gallery of Zdzisław Beksiński will be created in NCK (Cracow’s Nowa Huta Cultural Centre), with many paintings, photographs, and a hundred drawings. When in October 2014 NCK opened an exhibition of his paintings from Sanok’s Museum collection, Nowa Huta was flooded with crowds of people. 20,000 people visited the exhibition which lasted only 2 weeks because of the painting hire period limit. After the success we had no doubt that Beksiński in Nowa Huta is a hit. Hence the idea to create an art gallery for the artist. The official opening will take place in January 2016 - says Zbigniew Grzyb, director of the NCK.

From Częstochowa to Kraków.

Beksiński’s art collection, which for ten years was shown in Częstochowa Art Exhibitions Office (BWA) will now go to Krakow. The collection is owned by Piotr Dmochowski, merchant and a lawyer. Since 1983 he created a collection of works by the artist. He lives in Paris and from there - as he says - "promotes the work of the artist." Why Krakow? Dmochowski claims that there were several reasons for that. Beksiński studied at Cracow University of Technology, the last exhibition of his work was hugely popular and NCK offered the best conditions to present the collection. “We battled for three and a half years to create a gallery in Warsaw. I made two exhibitions there before. The last one in 2011 enjoyed a huge popularity. Just in one month it was visited by 25,000 viewers. However it turned out tho that they don’t want Beksiński there. The Mayor of Warsaw Mrs. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz refused to help” - says the collector.


Proposals to create Beksiński’s gallery were submitted also by Łódź and Toruń. Kraków has won the tender offering about 200 square meters space for permanent exhibition. There are already funds to renovate the premises. For now its only half a million PLN from the municipal budget, which should be enough for the renovation and adaptation. An intent letter to create the gallery has been signed earlier this week. It is indeed an excellent news for Kraków. Beksiński will be a great magnet for Nowa Huta - says vice governor Magdalena Sroka.

The works from fantastic period

In Nowa Huta’s gallery we will see 50 images of so-called fantastic period, 90 photographs and a hundred drawings in different formats. It is just a part of Piotr Dmochowski’s collection. The collector does not exclude that if the cooperation with the NCK goes well, other Beksiński’s works will be shown in Kraków as well. He has has hundreds of them in his collection, from mid-50’ies photography, metal abstract sculptures, wire and plaster works, drawings and images from each stage of Beksiński’s art.

The audience loves Beksiński, although critics don’t. They do not understand his work, despising him for lack of artistic education. Meanwhile, he was an artist in every way. He drew since he was a child, which his overbearing father used to forbid. Only after his father’s death, Beksiński devoted himself entirely to his art - says Joanna Gościej-Lewińska, curator of Beksiński’s exhibition, which took place in the NCK in October 2014.

Tadeusz Nyczek, literary critic and admirer of Beksiński’s art - is very satisfied with Krakow’s admission .
The audience never let Beksiński down. Last October’s exhibition proved that people still want to watch it. Im glad that Kraków was able to take over the collection, which so far was shown in Czestochowa.


Beksinski’s family

Zdzisław Beksiński came from Sanok. He graduated from architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. For several years lived in Krakow. In 1955 he returned to his hometown. Quit his job and devoted to art. In the late 70’s, he moved to Warsaw - Służewiec where he lived until 2005 when he was murdered. The investigation showed robbery as the motive for the crime. Lovers of Beksiński’s works have set up many websites and fan pages. One of them has more than 300 thousands "likes". In 2014, Krakow’s Publishing House “Znak” has published a book "Beksińskis. A Double Portrait" by Magdalena Grzebałkowska. It is a story about the artist and his son Tomasz (who committed suicide in 1999.). The book became a bestseller."

Of course you can always check the newly created Web Page - which is live now in 4 languages: Polish, German, English and French. You can explore the Virtual Gallery and see his beautiful dreams into paintings and sketches. Explore! Explore and fall in love with Beksińskis dreams :) 

Yours truly,
The LadyBug = Fan of Beksiński :)

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