Paintings and sketches by Witkacy (more information about the artist after the jump):
Witkacy, Chopping of Forest. Fight. 1921-22, oil
Witkacy, The Fairy Tale, 1921-22, oil on canvas (detail)
(couldn’t make a good full scan – see a small version here)
Witkacy, Kometa Encke, 1918
Witkacy, Kompozycja figuralna, 1918
Witkacy, Kompozycja z autoportetem, 1918
Witkacy, Kuszenie sw. Antoniego II, 1921-22, oil
Witkacy, Maria i Wlodzimierz Nawrocki, 1926 12 II, pastel on paper (via)
Witkacy, Jowisz zmieniajacy sie w byka, 1921
Witkacy, Composition, 1922, oil on canvas
Witkacy, Composition, 1922, oil
Witkacy, ‘Azot, Fosfor and Arsen,’ 1918, watercolour, gouache, crayon on paper (via)
(I feel a proto-manga vibe to some of these!)
Witkacy, Wycieczka do klasztoru, 1924
click to see the figure in the sky
Witkacy, Pilgrims to Juta-Juta…, 1936 2_IX, pencil on paper (via)
Witkacy, Exaltation, 1936 2_IX, pencil on paper (via)
Witkacy, Day of the Fried Cherries, 1931, pencil, crayon (via)
I first encountered Polish avant superman Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, a.k.a. Witkacy (1885 – 1939) through his writing on drugs, via the Witkiewicz Reader (which also includes his enthusiastic essay on Bruno Schulz). Years later I found his intense photographs — “Metaphysical Portraits.” And then last year I finally stumbled on his painting, via the Polish-language book Witkacy, Malarze by Irena Jakimowicz (scans come from this book; used copies are inexpensive). Some day I hope to tackle his big novel Insatiability (oddly out of print given its reputation) and read or see one of his many plays, perhaps Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes or Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf, but especially his first from 1918, Maciej Korbowa and Bellatrix (publisher description: “A psychotic guru known as the Master, Maciej Korbowa, aided by his gender-shifting alter-ego Bellatrix, presides over a secret club of disciples addicted to drugs, alcohol, and sado-masochistic orgies and leads this band of metaphysical desperados and decadent artists no longer able to create on a philosophical quest for absolute Nothingness–until he finally betrays them all to the revolutionary Sailors of Death.”).
In this post I focused mainly on works from the early 20s, but Witkacy created art in many different styles. See more here and here.
In conclusion, Witkacy on coming down:
…Cocaine is capable of producing a depression so real that there is no way to explain its origins and thereby neutralize it. That is still possible to a certain degree with an alcoholic hangover…. Nothing can convince the poor ‘hungover’ wretch that ultimately only in exceptional circumstances is life one long series of agonies. The slightest setbacks assume the dimensions of insurmountable calamities, small vexations turn into true misfortunes, and the shadow of the present thus deformed and rendered odious falls upon the entire past, transforming it into a series of monstrous errors and senseless torments, while the very thought of the future, seen in this light, or rather dark, becomes a torture not to be endured. It is an eminently suicidal state of mind. The devaluation of things which formerly constituted the sole aim of life, the disfigurement of even the most noble occupations and entertainments, the putrefaction of the human being to his innermost core — that is the usual cluster of sensations making up a cocaine “hangover.” (ca. 1930, trans. Daniel Gerould for his Witkiewicz Reader)
Previously:
Thirty Book Covers from Poland
Richard Aeschlimann
Quote from The Book by Bruno Schulz
