Nocturne

Peter Baczek

Peter Beczek's subjects of choice are often simple architectural compostions, like many of the precisionists of the 1920s and '30s. Precisionism is sometimes defined as reduced compositions with simple shapes and underlying geometrical structures, with clear outlines, minimal detail, and smooth handling of surfaces.

In “Nocturne” Baczek employs this aesthetic to portray silos illuminated by electric lights, their solid shapes emerging from the moonless night like sentries. The power of Baczek’s work lies in his ability to frame manmade structures one might otherwise consider mundane - utilitarian warehouses, crumbling barns, abandoned storefronts in hidden alleyways - in such a way as to make the casual viewer pause and absorb the unintentional beauty of discarded or dismissed urbanity. “Nocturne,” rendered primarily in velvety aquatint, stuns with its moody elegance.