Beksiński 1929–2005

Beksiński 1929–2005 — Fifth Edition, 2025 Softcover Reissue

Beksiński 1929–2005 is a 128-page anthology of paintings by Zdzisław Beksiński, published by Éditions Treville as part of the Pan-Exotica series. This 2025 softcover edition — the fifth edition of the title — expands the previous 2013 hardback with a new essay on Polish venues displaying Beksiński's works, additional plates, and the inclusion of the last painting he completed on the day of his death.

The Work

Beksiński's paintings resist easy classification. Across two distinct periods, he constructed imagery of decomposition, architectural ruin, distorted figures, and an atmosphere of inexplicable loneliness — what he described without irony as a kind of dystopian surrealism, though he refused to title individual works. His first period is marked by expressionistic colour and nightmarish built environments populated by bones, rust, and skeletal forms. His second period moved toward abstraction and formal reduction. Later in life, he worked in digital graphics as well.

The book reproduces these works alongside parallel texts in Japanese and English. Contributors include Piotr Dmochowski, Tadeusz Nyczek, Tadashi Nagase, and Anna Kania-Saj. The 2025 edition adds a new essay on the venues in Poland where Beksiński's paintings are currently held and displayed, along with supplementary plates not present in earlier printings. Among the additions is the final painting Beksiński finished on the day he was killed.

Zdzisław Beksiński (1929–2005)

Born on 24 February 1929 in Sanok, Poland, Beksiński studied architecture at the Kraków University of Technology before working briefly as a construction supervisor. In the 1950s he turned to avant-garde photography, sculpture, and drawing; by the 1960s he had committed entirely to painting. His wife Zofia died in 1998. His son Tomasz, a prominent radio personality, died by suicide on Christmas Eve 1999. On 21 February 2005, Beksiński was murdered in his Warsaw apartment. He was 75. The dates in the title are not incidental.

This Edition

The 2025 reissue is published by Éditions Treville Co., Ltd., Tokyo, and is part of the Art & Illustration Books catalogue. It converts the 2013 expanded hardback to a softcover format and adds new material. Text appears in Japanese and English throughout. Book design by chutte; translations coordinated by Atelier Porland.

Also Available

Further volumes in the Beksiński catalogue at Lokator100:

• Beksinski — The Collected Works I
• Beksinski — The Collected Works II
• Beksinski — The Collected Works III