Anyone like the Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski?

Is he well known in Poland?

you mean Zdzisław Beksiński? - yes he is quite well known - very original - died tragically (murdered) - suffered from a personal tragedy before: his son, who was a popular radio presenter and translator, committed suicide

He has a following, but like any artist he's not to everyone's taste and I've heard people in Poland and elsewhere say they dislike some of the stark imagery - I would agree with this. The circumstances of his death mirror the brutality of his work.

I like Becksinski, inasmuch as anyone can like supremely eerie depictions of a dessicated dead world. Are his paintings visual metaphors for a morally decrepit society, or has he actually painted the aftermath of the coming nuclear apocalypse, or both?

Such contemplation may leave one in need of a laugh. Here are images, contributed to a Chicago based satirical website, that utilize some of Beksinski's most famous compositions to parody a strange Polish advertisement:

somethingawful.com/photoshop-phriday/invest-eastern-poland/2/

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Yes, that's who I am referring to. Zdzisław Beksiński. I find him fascinating since he was born in 1929, suffered through the wars with the rest of Poland, and seems to have channeled it into his art. When I look at his art I sense someone who felt a lot of hopelessness and despair but perhaps not consciously. It was like he as in touch with another dimension where all the murky stuff sits waiting to be discovered.

Bloggers have commented his portraits portray death in a warmer way. Most of what he does has been described as portraits of death and when you consider what he and others in the immediate area have been through, he was in touch with that energy and able to express it to others through his work.