The S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Painting Company operated with a pragmatic motto: "The customer must always be satisfied." Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, the Polish polymath who adopted this ironical brand name, functioned as a photographer, writer, poet, playwright, painter, art theorist, and philosopher, leaving behind an expansive body of creative output that spanned the pre-World War I and interwar eras.
Early Development and Training
Born in Warsaw in 1885, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz grew up in Zakopane, where his father, the painter and critic Stanisław Witkiewicz, directed his education outside the traditional school system. Despite his father's reservations, he enrolled at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. During his youth, he formed significant friendships with figures such as the composer Karol Szymanowski, the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, and the artist Zofia Romer, while establishing himself through intimate portrait photography.
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In 1914, following the suicide of his fiancée Jadwiga Janczewska, Witkiewicz joined an anthropological expedition to Papua with Malinowski. The onset of World War I halted the project. He relocated to Saint Petersburg, where he served as an officer in the Pavlovsky Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. During the chaos of the Russian Revolution, he claimed to have finalized his philosophical principles while enduring artillery fire, eventually serving as a political commissar for his regiment.
Artistic Production and Theory
Upon returning to Poland, he engaged with the Formist movement and authored seminal texts, including New Forms in Painting and Introduction to the Theory of Pure Form in the Theatre. His literary career produced numerous plays, though only one, Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat, achieved success during his lifetime. In the 1930s, he gained recognition for his novels, receiving the Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935, and his dramatic masterpiece, Szewcy.
Final Days
Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Witkiewicz fled with his companion Czesława Oknińska to Jeziory. Upon learning of the Soviet invasion of Poland, he died by suicide on 18 September 1939. His work eventually garnered significant scholarly attention, with translations by Daniel Gerould and discussions of his plays by critics such as Martin Esslin and Tadeusz Kantor establishing his influence on European theater.
Fast facts
- Born: 1885, Warsaw
- Died: 1939, Velyki Ozera
- Citizenship: Second Polish Republic
- Primary Movement: Expressionism
- Education: Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow
- Notable Award: Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature (1935)
- Notable Work: Szewcy
- Occupations: Photographer, writer, poet, playwright, painter, art historian, philosopher
Questions readers ask
Why did he call his portrait business a company?
He re-branded his portrait painting in 1925 as 'The S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Painting Company' to provide economic sustenance, offering various grades of portraits ranging from representational to expressionistic.
What was his connection to the Theatre of the Absurd?
His dramatic works, many of which were collected in the 1960s, are recognized as precursors to post-WWII European absurdist drama, a link solidified by Martin Esslin’s 1961 scholarship.
Achievements
- Notable work: Szewcy
- Movement: Expressionism
