Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz WITKACY (1885-1939), Head on legs - Portrait of J.W. Pakowski

Pastel, light brown paper; 68.5 x 48.5 cm (light frame);
Signed, dated and inscribed p. g.: Witkacy 1934 VIII / NP (T.Bs) / [PI].

PROVENANCE:
collection of Tadeusz Rutkowski, Krakow;
sale in Desa, 1980s;
private collection, Poland.

LITERATURE:
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1885 - 1939, catalog of paintings compiled by. Irena Jakimowicz, Anna Żakiewicz, Warsaw 1990, p. 133, cat. no. 1866;
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Letters to his wife. Volume 2, edited by Anna Micińska, Warsaw 2015, pp. 259 and 262.

The first formulated rules and regulations of the Portrait Company of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz were created in 1925 during a joint exhibition with Tymon Niesiolowski, organized in Garlinski's salon in Warsaw. At that time, in the catalog for the exhibition, during which the artist presented only portraits, Witkacy announced that he would only be occupied with this subject matter in painting, since his other work did not receive the expected recognition. Witkacy also declared at this time that he had given up the theory of Pure Form in painting, which was ultimately not fully realized, since, as Irena Jakimowicz points out and as the updated version of Witkacy's Portrait Company regulations from 1928 states, many of the images created in the Portrait Company can be referred to by this term. They were also distinguished by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz himself, marking the less "licked" representations with the signature Witkacy, and those characterized by "niceness" with the full name. Also in the catalog of the Warsaw exhibition for the first time appeared the type of portraits, which the artist labeled with letters, also subjecting them to a brief characterization. These regulations have been expanded and updated, especially as regards the most demanding type C. A child type has also been added, which is a combination of the two previously listed in the inventory. The artist himself has also repeatedly created his own multiplications of characters revealed in photography, plays or prose.
The pastel on display shows a portrait of Dr. Jan Wladyslaw Pakowski, in type B and therefore a bit more distinctive. Other annotations by the artist explain that he did not use stimulants while painting it, nor did he smoke. There are two more type C portraits of the doctor in the collection of the Museum of Art in Lodz. Irena Yakimovich, in her catalog of Witkacy's works, points out two more pastels depicting Pakowski, in addition to the one on display and the museum's.

(Lit.: Irena Jakimowicz, Anna Żakiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1885-1939. Katalog dzieł malarskich, Warsaw 1990; Piotr Potworowski, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Warsaw 1989; Witkacy. Seismograph of the Epoch of Acceleration, edited by Zofia Machnicka, Paweł Polit, Anna Kiełczewska, Warsaw 2022; www.witkacy.hg.pl; www.muzeum.slupsk.pl ).