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#0015
2. S.l. Witkiewicz, Portrait of Irena Szarota, 1918, type A, private collection
the word 'realism' uttered here, sińce, as has already been noted, it is not a question of
reproducing but of the mode of execution. Type A, after ali, comprises heads only, natural and
comparatively life-like, but also large compositions in which a fantastic landscape, strange
animals, and the whole uncommon staffage are treated in the same manner as a real person
— minutely, painstakingly, with a sense of masses and spatial ratios, but without an excessively
garish tone (Figs 2-3, 6).
Witkacy painted relatively few such expanded portraits, undoubtedly on account of the
amount of work required for their execution and the high price which only exceptionally
well-to-do customers couid afford. It so happened that most of these large portraits in Type
A were made between 1 925 and 1929. The meaning of these specific likenesses is as a rule the
duality of existence — the reality of a human being (subject to internal divisions) contrasted with
an imagined world, whether it be in the form of recollections of an exotic landscape, fantastic
staffage or fabulous castles and ruins amidst scenie mountains and lakes. The contrast between
the substantial naturę of a figurę and a fantastic background is softened by a usually ceremoniał
garb, jewels and furs, and occasionally even a quite fantastic disguise of female models, but
simultaneously quite real because they had been designed occasionally by the artist himself for
bal Is in Zakopane. He was an expert in making art come true in life, in composing his own life as
well as those of others, in arranging events according to his own scenarios.
13
the word 'realism' uttered here, sińce, as has already been noted, it is not a question of
reproducing but of the mode of execution. Type A, after ali, comprises heads only, natural and
comparatively life-like, but also large compositions in which a fantastic landscape, strange
animals, and the whole uncommon staffage are treated in the same manner as a real person
— minutely, painstakingly, with a sense of masses and spatial ratios, but without an excessively
garish tone (Figs 2-3, 6).
Witkacy painted relatively few such expanded portraits, undoubtedly on account of the
amount of work required for their execution and the high price which only exceptionally
well-to-do customers couid afford. It so happened that most of these large portraits in Type
A were made between 1 925 and 1929. The meaning of these specific likenesses is as a rule the
duality of existence — the reality of a human being (subject to internal divisions) contrasted with
an imagined world, whether it be in the form of recollections of an exotic landscape, fantastic
staffage or fabulous castles and ruins amidst scenie mountains and lakes. The contrast between
the substantial naturę of a figurę and a fantastic background is softened by a usually ceremoniał
garb, jewels and furs, and occasionally even a quite fantastic disguise of female models, but
simultaneously quite real because they had been designed occasionally by the artist himself for
bal Is in Zakopane. He was an expert in making art come true in life, in composing his own life as
well as those of others, in arranging events according to his own scenarios.
13