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#0017
4. S.l. Witkiewicz, Composition with a double portrait of Maria and Włodzimierz Nawrocki,
1926, type A + type D, Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk
From time to time duality manifested itself in another opposition, for example in the double
Portrait of Maria and Włodzimierz Nawrocki (Fig. 4), in which not a human figurę and
a landscape but two figures in different renderings were contrasted —the woman in Type A and
the man in Type D; such a portrait represented an extreme case as a summary of formal and
psychological experiments but now executed without any "stimulants". The reversed procedurę
of bringing the extremes closer to each other in one person can be observed in a peculiar Portrait
of Maria Nawrocka (Fig. 5), linking the regulations of Type B with those of Type D. It is worth
recalling that there were also examples of two faces being combined in one, and singular cases of
imaginary hermaphroditic figures in which, in fact, the hitherto observes energy tensions melted
down to grey vagueness, it might be said — to unity without plurality — situated on the
borderline between what is and what is not admissible for the form of an object to be still
regarded as a work of art.
The portrait of Maryla Grossman bears a elear resemblance to those of Henryka Staroniewicz
(Fig. 7), dating from 1925, which depict an elegant woman in an evening dress against
a landscape which is grandiose in its fantastic character. The commission was probably inspired
by this horizontally-composed portrait of Mrs Staroniewicz reclining in an armchair, with a cat at
15
1926, type A + type D, Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk
From time to time duality manifested itself in another opposition, for example in the double
Portrait of Maria and Włodzimierz Nawrocki (Fig. 4), in which not a human figurę and
a landscape but two figures in different renderings were contrasted —the woman in Type A and
the man in Type D; such a portrait represented an extreme case as a summary of formal and
psychological experiments but now executed without any "stimulants". The reversed procedurę
of bringing the extremes closer to each other in one person can be observed in a peculiar Portrait
of Maria Nawrocka (Fig. 5), linking the regulations of Type B with those of Type D. It is worth
recalling that there were also examples of two faces being combined in one, and singular cases of
imaginary hermaphroditic figures in which, in fact, the hitherto observes energy tensions melted
down to grey vagueness, it might be said — to unity without plurality — situated on the
borderline between what is and what is not admissible for the form of an object to be still
regarded as a work of art.
The portrait of Maryla Grossman bears a elear resemblance to those of Henryka Staroniewicz
(Fig. 7), dating from 1925, which depict an elegant woman in an evening dress against
a landscape which is grandiose in its fantastic character. The commission was probably inspired
by this horizontally-composed portrait of Mrs Staroniewicz reclining in an armchair, with a cat at
15