A Fresh Look at the Work of the Master of Polish Photography
13 April – 24 August 2025
Curator of the exhibition: Aleksandra Szwedo
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the tragic death of Zdzisław Beksiński. The National Museum in Wrocław is preparing an exhibition dedicated to the lesser known, yet highly relevant aspect of the artist’s work – photography.
The exhibition is an attempt to view this artist in a wider context, in which he does not appear merely as a ‘terrifying’ and ‘gloomy’ figure, but also a pioneer in search of new forms of expression, fighting against limitations of contemporary photographic art.
Beksiński took up photography in the 1950s and in the early 1960s, but already in 1958 declared the medium to be devoid of any artistic value and decided to abandon it. His observations became the point of departure for a deeper analysis of the nature and role of photography in the context of contemporary challenges. Today, the question of the authenticity of photographic images takes on a new dimension. Does modern photography, generated by artificial intelligence, really cease to be art? The questions, posed by Beksiński 67 years ago, are still disquieting and demand deeper reflection.
The exhibited photographs constitute part of the extensive collection of the National Museum in Wrocław, one of the largest in Poland, gifted in 1977 by Zdzisław Beksiński as the works which the artist considered of the key importance for his oeuvre. Such a wide selection of the exhibits is being shown for the first time, together with items on loan from the Historical Museum in Sanok – not exhibited before – which originate from the period when the young artist created hundreds of his self-portraits and images of his beloved wife, Zofia.
The exhibition also presents the artist’s work in relation to other important figures of Polish photographic art, e.g. Jerzy Lewczyński and Bronisław Schlabs. Another significant object is the realisation, especially prepared for this occasion, by a much younger artist – and strongly linked with Beksiński – Norman Leto, entitled “Bryła życia” [The Body of Life]. It is symbolic of the life of Zygmunt Beksiński, full of tragedy, emotional turbulence and also of artistic exploration.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.