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DOI Artikel:Chrudzimska-Uhera, Katarzyna: Metafizyczne istoty bez formy działania: o Augu¬ście Zamoyskim, jego ojcu i o dziwnej przyjaźni z Witkacym*
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70649#0714
Katarzyna Chrudzimska-Uhera
706
Metaphysical Beings without a Form of Activity:
on August Zamoyski and His Father,
on a Strange Friendship with Witkacy
The activity of the sculptor August Zamoyski (1893-
1970) in Poland was related to the Expressionist
manifestations: of the Poznan Bunt Group and
Cracow-Zakopane Formists. Zamoyski returned
from Germany in 1918 with his wife, the dancer Rita
Sacchetto, and came to live in Zakopane. That very
year he took part in the Bunt exhibition in Poznan.
The event brought about a scandal August Zamoyski
was the main inspirer and protagonist of. The hosts
of the Poznan Society of Friends of Fine Arts
(TPSP) demanded for five works to be removed
from the display for moral reasons (among them four
authored by Zamoyski).The incident was used in a
propaganda way by Jerzy Hulewicz who turned
Zamoyski into an uncompromising rebel, opposing
the family, social norms, and valid conventions. This
motif was later eagerly exposed in his biography by
the sculptor himself; the same version was repeated
and consolidated by Zamoyski’s oeuvre monographer
Zofia Kossakowska-Szanajca.
However, the myth of Zamoyski, a rebel, has to
be verified in view of the facts provided thanks to
archival records supplied by the sculptor’s widow
Helene Peltier-Zamoyska and brought to Poland in
2007 by Aleksander Wat, as well as on the grounds
of the information found in the correspondence
retrieved from Jabłoń in 2006. They all show that
Zamoyski never definitely severed with his family
who supported him financially and provided with
assistance when he was settling down in Poland.
Trying to satisfy the family expectations, already
before WW I Zamoyski began forester studies and
having divorced Rita Sacchetto he administered the
family estate in Jabłoń. One must suspect that the
image of a rebel, matching the Bunt and Formism
programmes was an attractive completion.
Therefore, he consistently consolidated it in his
statements and publications. Additionally, during
Communist Poland, when the monograph of the
sculptor was written, it was desirable to renounce the
land-owner descend and emphasize one’s own
accomplishments. These reasons could have
deformed the official biography of the artist.
The above-mentioned archival records contained
documents dealing with the relations between
Zamoyski and Witkacy, a very peculiar men’s
friendship abounding in disputes, splitting up, and
returns. It can be suspected that August Zamoyski’s
aesthetical views, particularly with respect to
sculpture, could have influenced the theories of
Witkacy. Although the latter criticized his friend for
not being precise, he was involved in a factual debate
with him, treating his views as equally valid as his.
Their theoretical dialogue was reflected in their
creative one. The artists portrayed one another, they
also commented on each other’s works. Additionally,
there was some kind of an artistic understanding, or
maybe even cooperation, between Rita Sacchetto
and Witkacy. It should be assumed that Witkacy’s
formist theatre was to a certain degree an
interpretation of Rita Sacchetto’s formist dance.
The Jabłoń archival records also include
Witkacy’s letter written in the latter half of the
1920s, when the marriage of the Zamoyskis was
going through a crisis, endangered with a
breakdown. Witkacy wrote about the couple e.g. in
his novel, fragments of which Rita Sacchetto was
intending to read during the divorce case as the proof
demonstrating her husband’s guilt, therefore
implying that Farewell to Autumn written at that
time was yet another ‘novel with a clue’ in his
oeuvre, and one of the portrayed characters was
August Zamoyski. The details Witkacy points to in
his letter suggest, however, that the literary model of
the sculptor could be seen in Count Andrzej
Łohoyski. Fragments of the novel reflect real
personal relations between Witkacy and Zamoyski,
unmasking complex feelings: a mix of admiration,
envy, and jealousy that Witkiewicz felt for
Zamoyski.
Translated by Mgdalena Iwińska
706
Metaphysical Beings without a Form of Activity:
on August Zamoyski and His Father,
on a Strange Friendship with Witkacy
The activity of the sculptor August Zamoyski (1893-
1970) in Poland was related to the Expressionist
manifestations: of the Poznan Bunt Group and
Cracow-Zakopane Formists. Zamoyski returned
from Germany in 1918 with his wife, the dancer Rita
Sacchetto, and came to live in Zakopane. That very
year he took part in the Bunt exhibition in Poznan.
The event brought about a scandal August Zamoyski
was the main inspirer and protagonist of. The hosts
of the Poznan Society of Friends of Fine Arts
(TPSP) demanded for five works to be removed
from the display for moral reasons (among them four
authored by Zamoyski).The incident was used in a
propaganda way by Jerzy Hulewicz who turned
Zamoyski into an uncompromising rebel, opposing
the family, social norms, and valid conventions. This
motif was later eagerly exposed in his biography by
the sculptor himself; the same version was repeated
and consolidated by Zamoyski’s oeuvre monographer
Zofia Kossakowska-Szanajca.
However, the myth of Zamoyski, a rebel, has to
be verified in view of the facts provided thanks to
archival records supplied by the sculptor’s widow
Helene Peltier-Zamoyska and brought to Poland in
2007 by Aleksander Wat, as well as on the grounds
of the information found in the correspondence
retrieved from Jabłoń in 2006. They all show that
Zamoyski never definitely severed with his family
who supported him financially and provided with
assistance when he was settling down in Poland.
Trying to satisfy the family expectations, already
before WW I Zamoyski began forester studies and
having divorced Rita Sacchetto he administered the
family estate in Jabłoń. One must suspect that the
image of a rebel, matching the Bunt and Formism
programmes was an attractive completion.
Therefore, he consistently consolidated it in his
statements and publications. Additionally, during
Communist Poland, when the monograph of the
sculptor was written, it was desirable to renounce the
land-owner descend and emphasize one’s own
accomplishments. These reasons could have
deformed the official biography of the artist.
The above-mentioned archival records contained
documents dealing with the relations between
Zamoyski and Witkacy, a very peculiar men’s
friendship abounding in disputes, splitting up, and
returns. It can be suspected that August Zamoyski’s
aesthetical views, particularly with respect to
sculpture, could have influenced the theories of
Witkacy. Although the latter criticized his friend for
not being precise, he was involved in a factual debate
with him, treating his views as equally valid as his.
Their theoretical dialogue was reflected in their
creative one. The artists portrayed one another, they
also commented on each other’s works. Additionally,
there was some kind of an artistic understanding, or
maybe even cooperation, between Rita Sacchetto
and Witkacy. It should be assumed that Witkacy’s
formist theatre was to a certain degree an
interpretation of Rita Sacchetto’s formist dance.
The Jabłoń archival records also include
Witkacy’s letter written in the latter half of the
1920s, when the marriage of the Zamoyskis was
going through a crisis, endangered with a
breakdown. Witkacy wrote about the couple e.g. in
his novel, fragments of which Rita Sacchetto was
intending to read during the divorce case as the proof
demonstrating her husband’s guilt, therefore
implying that Farewell to Autumn written at that
time was yet another ‘novel with a clue’ in his
oeuvre, and one of the portrayed characters was
August Zamoyski. The details Witkacy points to in
his letter suggest, however, that the literary model of
the sculptor could be seen in Count Andrzej
Łohoyski. Fragments of the novel reflect real
personal relations between Witkacy and Zamoyski,
unmasking complex feelings: a mix of admiration,
envy, and jealousy that Witkiewicz felt for
Zamoyski.
Translated by Mgdalena Iwińska