The museum has got the rich collection of artistic and documentary photography and thousands of negatives (some of them has never been developed) by Beksinski. These works are characterized by an innovative approach, creativity and high quality. Unquestionable artistic qualities caused that Beksinski is still regarded as one of the greatest and the most inventive photographers of the 50s. Individual perception of reality was already revealed in these early works but the first encounter with this medium had occurred much earlier: I have photographed probably since 1940. Someday, at the beginning of the war, my father gave me his old camera (...) Although I photographed a lot of, it was not artistic creativity. I photographed friends, situations which had happened, tanks with soldiers, even airports (...). These pictures are stored in the museum archive and are important historical testimony to those times.
In terms of art, the most creative exploration falls on the mid 50s. Beginning with soft, bright photographs of architecture or landscape Beksinski moved towards abstract compositions based on microstructures and macrophotography and towards the works executing in pure bromine where the curious cadre constitutes the main material of the composition.There clearly appeared a quasi-reportage trend showing monotonous, melancholy life of a small town " shabby walls, boards of a fence, sett paving. At the same time, he executed intriguing portraits of which the most common model was his wife Sophia wrapped in soft light. The acts standing out by unconventional treatment were to create an interesting composition awakening specific emotions rather than only present the body of a model. Surprising, sometimes disturbing aesthetic of the works often went beyond the scope of classically comprehended beauty. Photographic montages (collage), based on word associations, were the last works. The critics, emphasizing the new way of treating photography, classified the artist, primarily, as an avant-garde creator. Beksinski had never treated that medium as the means of recording reality, documenting the existing and objective world, but as personal creation of that world through his peculiar expression. In 1959, he completely abandoned the camera as a tool of artistic creation in painting’s, drawing’s and sculpture’s favour.
Dorota Szomko-Osękowska
Translated by Piotr Zelny