Janusz Degler
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
Literary Studies in Poland 16, 7-11
1986
Articles
Janusz Degler
Stanisław Ignacy W itkiew icz
Stanisław Ignacy W itkiewicz (known und er the pseudonym W itkacy) —p ain ter, dram atist, novelist, theoretician o f art, philo sopher, critic, p h o to g rap h er, and jo u rn alist —was b o rn on 24th F ebru ary, 1885 in W arsaw as the son o f the em inent critic and pain ter S tanisław W itkiewicz and M aria née Pietrzkiewicz, a teacher o f music. In 1890 the W itkiewiczes settled dow n in Z ak op ane (a resort at the foot o f the T a tra m ountains). T he artistic and intellectual atm o sp h ere o f their house, in which the m ost distinguished Polish artists were frequent guests, m ade constant contact with art possible and fostered the developm ent o f very early m anifested young Wit- kiewicz's literary talent and also o f his gifts for painting and music. A lready as a boy abou t eight, under the influence o f reading o f S hakespeare an d M aeterlinck, he w rote several sho rt dram atic works, at the age o f 17 he m ade his déb ut as a p ainter on an exhi b ition in Z ak o p an e, the follow ing year he prepared his first p hilo sophical treatise entitled M arzenia im produktyw a (Unproductive D ay
dreams). T he developm ent o f W itkiew icz’s interests was, in fact, spon
taneous. H is father —an adh eren t o f the theory th a t all educational system s destro y in d ividuality— tried no t to interfere in shaping o f his so n ’s predilections (though he skilfully fanned them ) and was against sending the boy to school, p erm itting only private lessons. Y oung W itkiew icz was tu to red by such outstan d in g scientists as W ładysław Folkierski (m athem atics) and M ieczysław Lim anowski (geography). In June 1903, having passed all required exams, W it kiewicz received in Lwów his diplom a o f secondary education. Between the years 1904 — 1908 W itkiewicz travelled ab ro ad (Austria, Italy, F rance) and cam e to know m odern E uropean painting. The
8 Jan u sz D egler
acquaintance with G a u g u in ’s and then P icasso ’s w orks was o f particular im portance. In 1905 W itkiewicz u n d erto o k studies at the A cadem y o f Fine A rts in C racow . A fter a year he left the A cadem y under his fa th e r’s pressure and started private lessons with W ładysław Ślewiński, a friend o f G a u g u in ’s and an o u tstan d in g painter. In 1908 W itkiewicz again enrolled in the A cadem y o f Fine A rts (he attended Jó zef M ehoffer’s w orkshops), bu t after d ro p p in g the studies in April, 1910 he never cam e back to the Academ y. He m et Irena Solska, an actress related to the circles o f the C racow B ohem ia o f those days. T heir acquaintance turned into a storm y, d ram atic love-affair lasting till 1912. It becam e the basis o f W itkiew icz’s first novel entitled 622 upadki Bunga, czyli Demoniczna kobieta (The 622
Downfalls o f Bungo, or The Demonic Woman), w ritten between 1910 —
1911 (it was not published till 1972). In 1911 W itkacy surveyed the fam ous exhibition o f cubists in Paris, visited Ślewiński in D oelan in B retagne (he painted there a series o f landscapes from the sea side) and went to L o ndon invited there by his friend Bronisław M alinow ski, who was preparing him self in England for his an th ro pological studies and research, which were to brin g him world-wide fame. In the m eantim e W itkiewicz regularly visited his father, who had been staying in the h ealth -resort o f L ovrano (Trieste) since 1908. They carried on a frequent interchange o f letters, in which the father tried to direct his so n ’s life laying dow n som e definite ethical, intellectual and artistic requirem ents (the fa th e r’s letters were p u blished in 1968). In A ugust, 1913 a collective exhibition o f W itkie w icz’s 82 paintings and draw ings was held in Cracow .
On 21st o f F ebruary, 1914 W itkiew icz’s fiancee, Jadw iga Ja n czewska com m itted suicide in the T a tra m ountains. Deeply shaken by this tragic fact, W itkiewicz decided to tak e p art, as a draw er and p h o to g rap h er, in a scientific expedition to N ew G uinea organized by B ronisław M alinow ski. At the beginning o f June, 1914 they set o u t from L ondon, and reached A ustralia in the end o f July having stopped in Ceylon. M em ories o f this voyage recurred throu gh ou t W itkiew icż’s work. Im pressions from his fo rtn ig h t’s stay in Ceylon were described in the series o f articles, Z podróży do tropików
(From m y Voyage to the Tropics). W itkiewicz also set som e o f his
plays in S outh-E ast A sia and used oriental and Indian motifs in his artistic com positions.
S ta n isła w Ig n a cy W itk ie w ic z 9
U p o n learning ab o u t the o u tb rea k o f the war, having quarrelled w ith M alinow ski, W itkacy decided to retu rn to E urope. In the end o f O ctober, 1914 he cam e deeply depressed to St. Petersburg, w here he had som e close relatives. H e enrolled in the M ilitary C ollege feeling th a t his duty was to take p a rt in the war against G erm an y and hoping th a t later on he w ould be able to join Polish tro o p s, which were going to be organized. In M arch, 1915 he g rad u ated from the College as a Second L ieutenant and owing to his uncle’s influence he joined the fam ous P avlovian Leib-gard m ann ed by sons o f aristocratic families. H e participated in com bats on the fro n t and was w ounded in the great battle o f Stochod. H e was decorated with the o rd er o f S aint A nne. L ater he served in M oscow and St. P etersburg, where he p articipated in the artistic life o f Polish em igrants. D urin g the revolu tio n o f February, 1917 soldiers chose W itkiewicz to the fo u rth unit o f their b attalio n to m anifest their appreciation o f his h u m an itarian attitu d e tow ards his subo rdinates. A fter the O ctober R evolution W itkiewicz had to hide to avoid death.
W itkacy ’s stay in R ussia was a tu rn in g p o in t in his biography. Experiences connected with the war, active service and prim arily with the revolution were a great shock for W itkiewicz an d m ade him revalue his previous o utlook upo n the world, m an and history. These experiences left their ineffaçable im press upo n his artistic o u tp u t, in which the m otifs o f revolt o f m asses, o f revolution and o f coup d ’état were to recur, and they also gave final shape to W itkiew icz’s philosophy o f history and were the m ain cause of his pessimism and catastroph ism . In R ussia W itkacy was very active as a painter, m ade experim ents with p h o to graph y, w orked out the fo und ation s o f his philosophical and aesthetical system.
W ith the assistance o f his friends W itkiewicz cam e back to P oland in June, 1918 and im m ediately to o k to very anim ated and creative activity. W ithin the scope o f seven years he w rote over 30 plays, published 3 books, in which he form ulated the principles o f his theory o f p ain tin g and theatre and expounded his views upon the developm ent o f cu ltu re: Nowe form y w malarstwie i wynikające
stąd nieporozumienia (New Forms in Painting and the M isunderstand ings Resulting Therefrom), W arszaw a 1919; S zkice estetyczne (Aesthe tic Sketches), K rak ó w 1922; Teatr. Wstęp do teorii C zystej Formy
10 J a n u sz D eg ler
w teatrze (Theatre. Introduction to the Theory o f Pure Form in Theatre), K raków 1923. As a p ainter he belonged to the F orm ists
group — he was its chief theoretician and p articip ated in several exhibitions. The first prem ieres o f his plays (Tumor M ózgow icz —
Tumor Brainiowicz in the Słowacki T h eatre in C racow on 30th Ju n e, 1921, and P ragm atyści— The Pragm atists in the E lsynor T h ea tre in W arsaw on 29th D ecem ber, 1921) were violently attacked by critics. In response, W itkiewicz published several polem ic articles. O n 30th A pril, 1923 he m arried Jadw iga U nrug.
Between 1925— 1926 W itkiewicz changed the m ain direction o f his interests: he aban d o n ed these two fields o f his activity in which he tried to realize the assum ptions o f his theory o f P ure F orm . In pain tin g he lim ited him self only to p o rtra itu re, but he treated it as a form o f applied art and a source o f incom e (in 1925 he established an atelier called: The S. I. W itkiewicz P o rtra it P ain tin g Firm ). W itkacy also gave up d ra m a for the n o v el,.creatin g nevertheless the theory th at the novel can n o t be a w ork o f P ure F orm . In 1927 he published the novel Pożegnanie jesieni (Farewell
to A utum n), and in 1930 — Nienasycenie (Insatiability). He organized
T he Form istic T heatre in Z ak o p an e and between 1925—1926 staged there a few o f his plays. He co n tinu ed to p artic ip a te in num erous exhibitions all over P oland (on 26th June, 1929 his biggest individual exhibition was opened up in Poznań). In M ay, 1930 he also had an exhibition o f p ain tin g and w ater-colour in the G alerie Zak in Paris.
In the thirties W itkacy devoted him self alm ost entirely to philo sophy. He published dozens o f articles p op ularizing his own p h ilo sophical assum ptions and argu ing against other concepts (among oth ers ideas o f W hitehead, C arn ap , Russel and W ittgenstein). In the work entitled Pojęcia i twierdzenia implikowane p rze z pojęcie
Istnienia (The Concepts and Principles Im plied hy the Concept o f E xistence), which was published in 1935, he form ulated his own
philosophical system called biological m onadism . His artistic interests becam e the m argin o f his activity. Between 1931 — 1932 W itkiewicz w rote the first p a rt o f his never finished novel Jedyne wyjście
(The Only W ay Out). In 1932 he published a boo k a b o u t the
noxiousness o f narcotics (N ikotyna, alkohol, kokaina, peyotl, morfina,
S ta n isła w Ign acy W itk ie w ic z 11 the p am p h let O C zystej Formie {On Pure Form). In M arch, 1934 he finished w riting the play Szew cy (The Shoemakers). In 1936 the socio-psychological study N iem yte dusze (Unwashed Souls) cam e into being. In this study W itkacy presented his views upo n Polish history and analyzed Polish n ational shortcom ings (he did not m anage to publish this w ork and it appeared only in 1975). In the m eantim e he lectured on literature, art and philosophy. In O ctober,
1937 W itkiew icz was visited in Z ak o p an e by the ou tstan d in g G erm an p hilosopher, H ans C ornelius, with whom he had co rrespo nd end for a long tim e. A t th a t tim e W itkacy carried ou t controlled experim ents with narco tics exam ining their influence u po n artistic vision. In the end o f 1938 he finished his second philosophical work entitled
Zagadnienie psychofizyczne, czyli o materializm ie, witalizmie i mona- dyzm ie {Psychophysical Questions, or on M aterialism , Vitalism and M onadism ), on which he had been w orking for 6 years. A lso in
1938 he cam e back to d ra m a and w rote the play Tak zwana ludzkość
w obłędzie {So-called H um anity Gone Mad). He tried to reactivate
the experim ental th eatre in Z akopane.
In Septem ber, 1939 W itkiewicz volunteered to the arm y as a re serve officer, but he did n o t get a m obilization order because o f his age and state o f health. O n 4th Septem ber, 1939 he left W arsaw with o th e r refugees and, in the com pany o f his friend Czesław a O knińska, went to the east. In mid Septem ber they reached the village Jeziory, near D ąbrow ica in Polesie. O n 18th Septem ber, upon learn in g th at the R ed A rm y entered the eastern p art o f P oland, W itkiew icz com m itted suicide. He was buried on the local O rth o d o x cem etery.
S ta n isła w Ign acy W itk iew icz (W itkacy)
