thank you Mati =D that was all very interesting, hadnt read any of it but it fits with my preconcieved image of him.
he says it's not meant to be horrorific or cruel, but instead a spiritual portrait of himself.
when I look at his work, specially pieces like this it seems to be painted more form a perspective of empathy with the subject's ordeals, this one to me seems to suggest parents have to go trough many hardships silently and he's making them visible trough analogy.
Now, for dissecting his technique, I feel at quite the disadvantage to try and do that. This is an atmosphere that is also inherent to my more depressive imagination but I never got even close to depicting it the way he did
this would be an example of an attempt at this
I was trying to express something about someone I know with this one but I didnt really get there..and I hate how lacking the mood is on this one.
this is actually a stain I saw on my shower while bathing. I kind of captured the overall shape and details but it still doesnt communicate the feeling it gave me.
this is my most succesful, if not very detailed one. I did not set out to do beksinski,I was just scribbling whatever and this came out, as I said my imagination can go that way.
Hm, the more I think about it the more beksinski-ish pieces of mine I can recall :p but that's enough for now.
My point is I feel I'm fairly far from being able to examine it, Mathias on the other hand has succesful recreations of Giger's signature erotomachina textures so I think he might be of some more help :p
I'm leaving here an interview about his technique
MAVW: Yep, that's a cool one. Remember this is all mostly symbolic, You are probably right that maybe without the torch he couldnt see ahead where he's walking, but I think the point of the torch is more symbolic, naybe it is all actually dark but Zdzislaw makes the reapers visible to show us how screwed the little guy is, maybe the torch represents righteousness and is there to keep the towering reapers from crushing the little figure's mind just with their presence.
That one often gets paired with a quote from the bible "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." now, Beksinski never ever made the connection, hell he never explains anything I've only seen one piece that was titled, but the association here makes sense and illustrates the intent pretty well.
EDIT: Also, dont trust the colors on the stuff you see online! his stuff is often scanned with the wrong colors, so much so that you might find 4 different colorations for the same piece and it'll be hard to tell which is the real one. as far as I can tell, these are the right ones for that reaper valley as I call it
I say that because this is an official scan from the online store. But there's also this slightly darker version
I have a lot more of his pieces to post as you know, but I think I'll hold back on them and post them slowly, there is PLENTY to discuss even with these few choice pieces =D