Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 - 1939)

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Azot, Fosfór i Arsen (z cyklu kompozycji chemicznych) (tech. mieszana), 1918Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic (from the cycle of chemical compositions) 

 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Leo and Hercules, 1918Leo and Hercules, 1918 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Fantastic Composition (Vision with masks), 1920Fantastic Composition (Vision with masks), 1920 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Green Eye Composition, 1918Green Eye Composition, 1918

 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Composition 1922Composition 1922

 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - The Gravedigger's MonologueThe Gravedigger's Monologue 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Fight, 1921-22Fight, 1921-22 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Creating the World, 1921-22Creating the World, 1921-22 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Satan, 1920Satan, 1920 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Marysia and Burek in Ceylon, 1920-21Marysia and Burek in Ceylon, 1920-21 

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Story, 1922Story, 1922 

 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Capricornus, 1918Capricornus, 1918 

 

 "A struggle between nonsensical and indescribable things. A row of chambers turned into an underground circus. Strange beasts appeared in the loges. The crowd was a mixed bag, an audience half-animal, half-human. The loges turned into bathtubs, connected to urinals in the Mexican or Aztec style. A sense at times of two layers of visibility: the images in the depths were chiefly black and white, while the background had putrid red and dirty lemon-yellow diagonal stripes. The majority of the visions had beasts of land and sea and horrible human faces. Giraffes whose necks and heads turned into snakes growing out of their bodies. A ram with a flamingo nose hung with pink guts. Indian cobras slithered out of the ram, then the whole thing crumbled into a mass of snakes." - quote excerpt from the artist describing tripping on peyote, read more here.

 

"Shortly after Poland was invaded by Germany in September 1939, Witkiewicz escaped with his young lover Czesława to the rural frontier town of Jeziory, in what was then eastern Poland. After hearing the news of the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, Witkacy committed suicide on 18 September by taking a drug overdose and trying to slit his wrists. He convinced Czesława to attempt suicide with him by consuming Luminal, but she survived. The film Mystification 2010, written and directed by Jacek Koprowicz proposed that Witkiewicz faked his own death and lived secretly in Poland until 1968."  - quote from biography on the artist found at Wikipedia.

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