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DOI Artikel:Jakimowicz, Irena: Metaphor and Realism: Witkacy's Late Works in the National Museum's Collection. 1984 Acquisitions
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18901#0097
his game with art in general despite his loss of confidence in it, yet with art in its new, non-
canonical understanding — art of great realism intended perhaps also for a large public, and
the art of psychological-narcotic experiment carried out off the mainstream of the utilitarian
production of his Portrait Firm. It is no accident that with Witkacy, borders are rarely sharp
and distinct. His game with art was as much a road towards a consistent system as a source
of entertainment. Witkacy liked to put on costumes and play roles, and he liked his models
to do the same. His fascination with clothes helped him discover or impose a different personality,
reascertain the ambiguity of our existence, its dual structure. His officer’s uniform was likewise
a sort of disguise put on for the role in which he cast himself during World War I.
An extreme case of Witkacy’s mask was his „dressing up” as a woman in one of his self-
portraits. This was also an act of seeking the utter contradiction of himself within himself.
Witkacy could not have thought of a more dramatic antithesis than male-female, the latter
being the embodiment of a-intellectual, almost animal-like existence. An analysis of human
and beastly traits in human nature, which found a many-sided expression in Witkacy’s theatre,
underlies some of his paintings and portraits, notably his peyotl visions and peyotl portraits
where the symbiosis between human and beastly shapes is evident. We also know Witkacy’s self-
portrait featuring a Scorpio’s tail.
Two self-portraits painted overnight (26/27th April, 1938), which may be classified as a
double self-portrait, have been purchased by the Museum from Helena Lesińska who sat for
Witkacy several times in those years. The double self-portrait was not painted specially for
her, but she received it from Witkacy’s close friend, Bronisława Włodarska who lived in Zako-
pane at that time. It was not Witkacy’s last self-portrait but, though followed by several other
effigies, this peculiar couple of adjoining portraits looks like the summing up of his life, his
testament, his message on the duality of existence, which was the basic concept in Witkacy’s
philosophy. The specific example that illustrates the thesis is Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s
personality which, though internally split, was consistent. Let us not be deceived, however,
that the message is as unambiguous as this; the essential issue is either mocked at, or a hint
is given that an intellectual joke may be the solution.
Both „Self-Witkacys” are marked „E”, which indicates a psychological approach to the
subject and ,,NP” is also Witkacy’s confession that smoking was temporarily resumed. The first
portrait (the sequence of execution may be established with certainty), painted under the influence
of beer and cocaine, shows a calm, rather pensive handsome man past his prime. Black with
a touch of white and pink dominate against the background of pale brown paper. Despite the
greenery of the eyes, the yellow collar and the pink and brick-red touches in the background,
the portait does not strike us as colourful. The second portait shows the sitter in a similar posture
though the framing is tighter that in the former. It was painted after an additional dose of
cocaine and alcohol on grey-pink paper, with energetic strokes and strong contrast of value
and colour: black, red and white, with slight touches of green and yellow. The expressive value
contrast is enhanced by the marked black shadow on the right side of the face. Despite the
identical lineaments, the latter portrait represents someone quite different from the former:
a man with a diabolical expression of the contracted eyebrows, narrowed eyes and a mouth
opening in a cruel smile. The first portait bears the inscription ,,Dr Jekyll”, the second „Mr
Hyde”. Thus cards have been put on the table. The clear literary metaphor, another costume
worn by Witkacy, orginates in the 19th-century novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson.
,,Dr Jekyll was ... a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of slyish
cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness...” He was a well-known physician,
a generally liked and respected man. His penetrating mind made him aware of the profound
83
canonical understanding — art of great realism intended perhaps also for a large public, and
the art of psychological-narcotic experiment carried out off the mainstream of the utilitarian
production of his Portrait Firm. It is no accident that with Witkacy, borders are rarely sharp
and distinct. His game with art was as much a road towards a consistent system as a source
of entertainment. Witkacy liked to put on costumes and play roles, and he liked his models
to do the same. His fascination with clothes helped him discover or impose a different personality,
reascertain the ambiguity of our existence, its dual structure. His officer’s uniform was likewise
a sort of disguise put on for the role in which he cast himself during World War I.
An extreme case of Witkacy’s mask was his „dressing up” as a woman in one of his self-
portraits. This was also an act of seeking the utter contradiction of himself within himself.
Witkacy could not have thought of a more dramatic antithesis than male-female, the latter
being the embodiment of a-intellectual, almost animal-like existence. An analysis of human
and beastly traits in human nature, which found a many-sided expression in Witkacy’s theatre,
underlies some of his paintings and portraits, notably his peyotl visions and peyotl portraits
where the symbiosis between human and beastly shapes is evident. We also know Witkacy’s self-
portrait featuring a Scorpio’s tail.
Two self-portraits painted overnight (26/27th April, 1938), which may be classified as a
double self-portrait, have been purchased by the Museum from Helena Lesińska who sat for
Witkacy several times in those years. The double self-portrait was not painted specially for
her, but she received it from Witkacy’s close friend, Bronisława Włodarska who lived in Zako-
pane at that time. It was not Witkacy’s last self-portrait but, though followed by several other
effigies, this peculiar couple of adjoining portraits looks like the summing up of his life, his
testament, his message on the duality of existence, which was the basic concept in Witkacy’s
philosophy. The specific example that illustrates the thesis is Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s
personality which, though internally split, was consistent. Let us not be deceived, however,
that the message is as unambiguous as this; the essential issue is either mocked at, or a hint
is given that an intellectual joke may be the solution.
Both „Self-Witkacys” are marked „E”, which indicates a psychological approach to the
subject and ,,NP” is also Witkacy’s confession that smoking was temporarily resumed. The first
portrait (the sequence of execution may be established with certainty), painted under the influence
of beer and cocaine, shows a calm, rather pensive handsome man past his prime. Black with
a touch of white and pink dominate against the background of pale brown paper. Despite the
greenery of the eyes, the yellow collar and the pink and brick-red touches in the background,
the portait does not strike us as colourful. The second portait shows the sitter in a similar posture
though the framing is tighter that in the former. It was painted after an additional dose of
cocaine and alcohol on grey-pink paper, with energetic strokes and strong contrast of value
and colour: black, red and white, with slight touches of green and yellow. The expressive value
contrast is enhanced by the marked black shadow on the right side of the face. Despite the
identical lineaments, the latter portrait represents someone quite different from the former:
a man with a diabolical expression of the contracted eyebrows, narrowed eyes and a mouth
opening in a cruel smile. The first portait bears the inscription ,,Dr Jekyll”, the second „Mr
Hyde”. Thus cards have been put on the table. The clear literary metaphor, another costume
worn by Witkacy, orginates in the 19th-century novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson.
,,Dr Jekyll was ... a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of slyish
cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness...” He was a well-known physician,
a generally liked and respected man. His penetrating mind made him aware of the profound
83