Stanislaw Ignacy WITKIEWICZ (WITKACY) (1885-1939), PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN, December 1934

Pastel, paper, 64.5 x 49.5 cm,
Signed p.g.: Ignacy Witkiewicz 1934 XII (TB+A) NП NP. + crest.
Expert opinion of Mrs. Anna Żakiewicz, 2018.



Stanislaw Ignacy WITKIEWICZ (WITKACY) (1885-1939).
Painter, playwright, novelist, philosopher, publicist, one of the most prominent creators of Polish culture. The son of Stanislaw Witkiewicz, in whose home he met outstanding representatives of the world of science and art from an early age. He did not receive a formal artistic education; in 1904-1905 he studied in the studio of J. Mehoffer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. During his stay in France in 1911, he visited W. Ślewiński, under whose tutelage he painted landscapes. He made artistic trips to Germany, Italy and Paris, where he encountered new tendencies in art. In 1914 he participated in the Australian expedition of his friend, ethnologist Bronislaw Malinowski. During the First War, he served in the tsarist army. In 1918 he returned to the country. In 1919 he joined the Formist grouping, but his work deviated from Formist assumptions. He created an individual style, based on his own experiences, his reading, and on the works of other authors that he found inspirational. He included the assumptions of his painting in theoretical writings, such as "New Forms in Painting" of 1919, which was supplemented and expanded by "Artistic Sketches" of 1922. The years 1925-1939 brought the dominance of playwriting in Witkacy's work, his oil paintings did not enjoy recognition and did not find customers, so in order to ensure a steady income, the artist decided to deal with portraiture and established the one-man Portrait Company "S.I. Witkiewicz", for which he formulated detailed Regulations. Type A portraits were the most interesting and expensive, while type C portraits should be considered the most impressive. They were created in social situations, often during drug séances in the homes of friendly doctors; the "What" designation on a Type C portrait indicated cocaine. Type C portraits were characterized by subjective characterization of the model, the artist did not charge for them, they were "priceless." (Lit.: B. Zgodzińska-Wojciechowska and A. Żakiewicz "Witkacy. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz," WAiF, Auriga, PWN, Warsaw 2001).