Painter. He is recognized as a Polish painter as well as a photographer and fantasy artist. He is the only modern European artist to have had an exhibition in the Osaka Museum of Art in Japan. During World War II, he continued with his provocative art endeavors even though his art was frowned upon by the Soviet Government. He studied architecture at Kraków Polytechnic in 1947, finishing his studies in 1952 with a master's degree in science, before becoming focused on European avant-garde sculpturing and photography. Beksiński had no formal training as an artist. In 1960 he turned from photography to painting. A prestigious exhibition in Warsaw in 1964 proved to be his first major success, as all of his paintings were sold. In the 1980s his works gained popularity in France due to the endeavors of Piotr Dmochowski, an art merchant living in France, and later he gained significant popularity in Western Europe, the United States and Japan. A vast majority of his nightmarish ambient paintings have no titles. By processing photographs and drawings on the computer, he successfully produced a new form of fantasy art He soon became the leading figure in contemporary Polish art. The late 1990s were a very trying time for Beksinski. His wife, Zofia, died of cancer in 1998, and a year later, on Christmas Eve of 1999, his son Tomasz, a popular radio presenter, music journalist and movie translator, died from a drug overdose. Overcome with grief after discovering his son's body, he became isolated from society the rest of his life. On February 22, 2005 he was found dead in his flat in Warsaw with 17 stab wounds on his body, two of which were fatal. The teenage son of his long-time caretaker, who later pled guilty, and a friend were arrested shortly after the crime and sentenced to prison. Beksinski had recently refused a loan of $100 to the teenager. Beksinski's art was gruesome and gory, yet he had hundreds of fans who were attracted to this dystopian surrealism. A somewhat shy man, he shunned art, almost never visiting museums or exhibitions. His art has inspired video games and movies. A full-sized statue of him was erected in his honor in Sanok. Sanok Castle has opened a wing to exhibit his art.