Untitled 

This unnerving, untitled image was painted by the Polish artist, Zdzislaw Beksinski. Beksinski's nightmarish visions, like this one, have roots in the social history of Poland. Look at the image and consider the urban ruins that surround the figure. Think about the way Beksinski survived the Nazi occupation during the Second World War, witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust. Then consider Poland's subsequent subjugation to the Soviet Union, when artistic expression was censored and controlled by the state. We might see this image, then, not just as a personal expression of the artist's inner turmoil, but as a commentary on the social and political structures of his time. The historian's job is to look at the context in which the artist was working, consulting archives, memoirs, and other historical sources, to better understand the meaning of such images.