DOI Artikel:
Jakimowicz, Irena: "The Falsehood of Woman" or the duality of existence in Witkacy
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18942#0014
—so rarely attainable by Witkacy — as a decisive argument for the overcoming of difficulties. The
results were to prove astounding. Today, when our perception of Witkacy's art is shaped by an
already extensive knowledge of his painted works both the technical merits and the rich
iconographicand programmatic layer of this one painting are revealed. This is, as far as we know,
the only picture by Witkacy to convey so many drifts of his thoughts.
Witkacy, an artist fully aware of his creative activity, while considering the rendering of form
the essence of good drawing, wrote: ,,[...] a drawing in a picture is good when the artist who
created it is pleased and has a elear conscience". However, this did not mean an invitation to
uncontrolled freedom, sińce the stress had been shifted from objects to proportions, relations,
and correlations. "Every artist must draw well, which means that he must know how to do what
he wants and not what accidentally comes out by itself". At the same time — apparently
unexpectediy — he states: "The oniy way to iearn this coordination of intention with means of
execution, the discordance of which in relation to the desired outeome causes a state known in
the artistic milieu as 'katzenjammer', is the most aceurate possible imitation of naturę, not so
much in the sense of finding details as in the copying of proportions and finding short-cuts"3.
A glance at the picture under discussion unables the observation that Witkacy had acquired
absolute technical mastery. The perfect anatomy and freedom of the pc/se (a wink of
understanding as it were at the gracef ul Madame Recamier) and the ability to render the materiał
of the attire — a colourful dress and jewels and the glossy silk stockings and prunella shoes
— account for the natural existence of human figures in the dichotomous landscape, whose
perspective and the outlines of details do not differ from normality, and even clashes with the
fantastic character of an exotic branch of a tree and of an extraordinary armchair in which the
beautiful model rests, do not seem surprising, while the diabolic cat has the reality of
a domesticated smali animal.
This imitative aceuracy clearly does not serve the purpose of a simple, realistic description of
the world but primarily of the suggestion and disclosure of hidden relations and meanigns. The
precision of drawing concerns in equal measure real and imaginary objects or— in other words
— it creates a coherent image of the world constituted by the artisfs imagination and will which
is convincing in its solidity or, as it were tangibility. The logie of naturę and imagination is
subordinated to the logie of another sphere — that of art — with its very special conditions. The
unity of the picture is determined by the binding of numerous diverse elements by the same
means of the form, It has not been constructed by deformating or contorting the perceived
objects in accordance with certain accepted principles. Witkacy never cared for analysing an
object or the pursuit of its essence; its expression as in the case of the Expressionists. In "Pure
Form" ("Czysta Forma") compositions objects played a formative role as carriers of vectorial
tensions; here, with the highest precision of reproduction, they are above all signs of the ideas of
established morphology, which could be assembled into various wholes. Witkacy revealed this
favouritemethod of collage both in his literary technique and in his painting. In the latterthe artist
even more visibly reduced description and persuasion in favour of presentation or, perhaps more
exactly, the presentation of opposities.
The picture The Falsehood of Woman, a portrait after all and therefore subject to the
typological classification of The Portrait-Painting Firm, was marked with the sign T.A. In the
Firm's Regulations it is characterized as follows: Type A — "Comparatively speaking, the most,
as it were 'spruced up' kind. Suitable rather for womens faces than for mens. 'Slick' execution,
with a certain loss of character in the interests of beautification, or accentuation of 'prettiness".4
This type, being time-consuming, was also the most expensive on Witkacy's price list. Never is
3. S. i. Witkiewicz, Nowe formy w malarstwie i wynikające stąd nieporozumienia (New Forms in Painting and the
Misunderstandings arising from them), 191 9, according to Nowe formy w malarstwie i inne pisma estetyczne {New Forms in
Painting and Other Aesthetic Sketches), Warszawa, 1959, pp. 101, 102.
4. S.l. Witkiewicz, Beelzebub Sonata, Plays, Essays and Documents. Ed. and transl. by Daniel Geroutd and Jadwiga Kosicka.
Performing Arts Jorunal Publications, New York, 1980. p. 173.
12
results were to prove astounding. Today, when our perception of Witkacy's art is shaped by an
already extensive knowledge of his painted works both the technical merits and the rich
iconographicand programmatic layer of this one painting are revealed. This is, as far as we know,
the only picture by Witkacy to convey so many drifts of his thoughts.
Witkacy, an artist fully aware of his creative activity, while considering the rendering of form
the essence of good drawing, wrote: ,,[...] a drawing in a picture is good when the artist who
created it is pleased and has a elear conscience". However, this did not mean an invitation to
uncontrolled freedom, sińce the stress had been shifted from objects to proportions, relations,
and correlations. "Every artist must draw well, which means that he must know how to do what
he wants and not what accidentally comes out by itself". At the same time — apparently
unexpectediy — he states: "The oniy way to iearn this coordination of intention with means of
execution, the discordance of which in relation to the desired outeome causes a state known in
the artistic milieu as 'katzenjammer', is the most aceurate possible imitation of naturę, not so
much in the sense of finding details as in the copying of proportions and finding short-cuts"3.
A glance at the picture under discussion unables the observation that Witkacy had acquired
absolute technical mastery. The perfect anatomy and freedom of the pc/se (a wink of
understanding as it were at the gracef ul Madame Recamier) and the ability to render the materiał
of the attire — a colourful dress and jewels and the glossy silk stockings and prunella shoes
— account for the natural existence of human figures in the dichotomous landscape, whose
perspective and the outlines of details do not differ from normality, and even clashes with the
fantastic character of an exotic branch of a tree and of an extraordinary armchair in which the
beautiful model rests, do not seem surprising, while the diabolic cat has the reality of
a domesticated smali animal.
This imitative aceuracy clearly does not serve the purpose of a simple, realistic description of
the world but primarily of the suggestion and disclosure of hidden relations and meanigns. The
precision of drawing concerns in equal measure real and imaginary objects or— in other words
— it creates a coherent image of the world constituted by the artisfs imagination and will which
is convincing in its solidity or, as it were tangibility. The logie of naturę and imagination is
subordinated to the logie of another sphere — that of art — with its very special conditions. The
unity of the picture is determined by the binding of numerous diverse elements by the same
means of the form, It has not been constructed by deformating or contorting the perceived
objects in accordance with certain accepted principles. Witkacy never cared for analysing an
object or the pursuit of its essence; its expression as in the case of the Expressionists. In "Pure
Form" ("Czysta Forma") compositions objects played a formative role as carriers of vectorial
tensions; here, with the highest precision of reproduction, they are above all signs of the ideas of
established morphology, which could be assembled into various wholes. Witkacy revealed this
favouritemethod of collage both in his literary technique and in his painting. In the latterthe artist
even more visibly reduced description and persuasion in favour of presentation or, perhaps more
exactly, the presentation of opposities.
The picture The Falsehood of Woman, a portrait after all and therefore subject to the
typological classification of The Portrait-Painting Firm, was marked with the sign T.A. In the
Firm's Regulations it is characterized as follows: Type A — "Comparatively speaking, the most,
as it were 'spruced up' kind. Suitable rather for womens faces than for mens. 'Slick' execution,
with a certain loss of character in the interests of beautification, or accentuation of 'prettiness".4
This type, being time-consuming, was also the most expensive on Witkacy's price list. Never is
3. S. i. Witkiewicz, Nowe formy w malarstwie i wynikające stąd nieporozumienia (New Forms in Painting and the
Misunderstandings arising from them), 191 9, according to Nowe formy w malarstwie i inne pisma estetyczne {New Forms in
Painting and Other Aesthetic Sketches), Warszawa, 1959, pp. 101, 102.
4. S.l. Witkiewicz, Beelzebub Sonata, Plays, Essays and Documents. Ed. and transl. by Daniel Geroutd and Jadwiga Kosicka.
Performing Arts Jorunal Publications, New York, 1980. p. 173.
12