Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

{{Short description|Polish writer and artist (1885–1939)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz | image = Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.jpg | pseudonym = Witkacy | alma_mater = Kraków Academy of Fine Arts | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1885|02|24}} | birth_place = Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1939|09|18|1885|02|24}} | death_place = Jeziory, Poland | occupation = Writer, painter, dramatist, philosopher, photographer | notableworks = {{Plainlist| *''Tumor Mózgowicz'' *''Shoemakers'' *''The Madman and the Nun'' *''Farewell to Autumn'' *''Insatiability''}} | partner = {{ill|Jadwiga Janczewska|pl}} | spouse = Jadwiga Unrug, m.1923 | relatives = ''Father'': Stanisław Witkiewicz ''Godmother'': Helena Modjeska ''Father-in-law'': Juliusz Kossak | caption = Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, ca 1912 | alt = Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, ca 1912 }}

'''Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz''' ({{IPA|pl|staˈɲiswaf iɡˈnatsɨ vʲitˈkʲɛvʲitʂ|lang}}; 24 February 1885{{spaced ndash}}18 September 1939), commonly known as '''Witkacy''', was a Polish writer, painter, philosopher, theorist, playwright, novelist, and photographer active before World War I and during the interwar period.

==Life== Born in Warsaw, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz was a son of the painter, architect and an art critic Stanisław Witkiewicz. His mother was Maria Pietrzkiewicz Witkiewiczowa. Both of his parents were born in the Samogitian region of Lithuania. His godmother was the internationally famous actress Helena Modrzejewska.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://niezlasztuka.net/o-sztuce/helena-modrzejewska-modjeska-krakow-nowy-jork/ |language=pl |title=Helena Modrzejewska "Modjeska", czyli jak polska aktorka podbiła Amerykę |access-date=16 July 2022}}</ref> thumb|left|200px|Little ''Witkacy'' with his father, ca. 1893 Witkiewicz was reared at the family home in Zakopane. In accordance with his father's antipathy to the "servitude of the school," he was home-schooled and encouraged to develop his talents across a range of creative fields. Against his father's wishes he studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts with Józef Mehoffer and Jan Stanisławski.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|url=https://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy|title=Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)|website=culture.pl|access-date=2018-09-22|language=en}}</ref>

Witkiewicz was close friends with composer Karol Szymanowski and, from childhood, with Bronisław Malinowski and Zofia Romer. Romer was romantically linked to both Bronisław Malinowski and Witkiewicz. He had a tumultuous affair with prominent actress Irena Solska<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy|title=Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)|website=culture.pl|language=en|access-date=2019-04-09}}</ref> who according to {{ill|Anna Micińska|pl}} is represented as the heroine Akne Montecalfi in his first novel, ''The 622 Downfalls of Bungo or The Demonic Woman'', 1911. According to Micińska he also represented himself as the character Bungo and Malinowski as the Duke of Nevermore.<ref name="auto1"/> The unfinished novel, which was not published until 1972, also describes erotic encounters between Bungo and the Duke of Nevermore.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|title=The Witkiewicz reader|author=Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy|date=1992|publisher=Northwestern University Press|others=Gerould, Daniel C. (Daniel Charles), 1928-2012.|isbn=0810109808|location=Evanston, Ill.|oclc=26014071}}</ref> Taught wet plate photography by his father, it was during this period that he also began producing the intimate portrait photography for which he is known; producing striking portraits of his circle in Zakopane and many self-portraits.

In 1914 following a crisis in Witkiewicz's personal life due to the suicide of his fiancée {{ill|Jadwiga Janczewska|pl|Jadwiga Janczewska}}, for which he blamed himself, he was invited by Malinowski to act as draftsman and photographer on his anthropological expedition to the then Territory of Papua,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Witkacy-Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz : life and work|last=Anna.|first=Micińska|date=1990|publisher=Interpress|isbn=832232359X|location=Warsaw|oclc=26361556}}</ref> by way of Ceylon and Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://witkacy.eu/wp/john-gillies-tracking-down-witkacy-in-australasia-sources-race-productions-context-and-speculation/ |title=John Gillies "Tracking down Witkacy in Australasia: sources, race, productions, context and speculation" |date=5 December 2021 |access-date=16 July 2022}}</ref> The venture was interrupted by the onset of World War I. After quarrelling with Malinowski in Australia, Witkiewicz who was by birth a subject of the Russian Empire, travelled to Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd) from Sydney and was commissioned as an officer in the Pavlovsky Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army.<ref name="auto"/> His ailing father, a Polish patriot, was deeply grieved by his son's decision and died in 1915 without seeing him again.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-31 |title=Witkacy – biografia – Witkacy – Zinterpretuj.pl |url=https://zinterpretuj.pl/opracowania/witkacy-biografia/ |access-date=2022-09-06 |language=pl-PL}}</ref>

In July 1916 he was seriously wounded in the battle on Stokhid River in what is now Ukraine and was evacuated to St Petersburg<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://info-poland.icm.edu.pl/classroom/witkacy/mark.html|title=Witkacy's Theater of Life/The Search for Self|website=info-poland.icm.edu.pl|access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> where he witnessed the Russian Revolution. He claimed that he worked out his philosophical principles during an artillery barrage, and that when the Revolution broke out he was elected political commissar of his regiment. His later works would show his fear of social revolution and foreign invasion, often couched in absurdist language.

thumb|right|Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, ''Multiple self-portrait in mirrors'', 1915–1917<ref>{{cite book | last1=Frantczak |first1=Ewa |last2=Okołowicz |first2=Stefan | title=Przeciw nicości : fotografie Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza |year=1986 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Literackie | location=Kraków |page=63 | isbn=83-08-01398-8}}</ref> He had begun to support himself through portrait painting and continued to do so on his return to Zakopane in Poland. He soon entered into a major creative phase, setting out his principles in ''New Forms in Painting'' and ''Introduction to the Theory of Pure Form in the Theatre''. He associated with a group of "formist" artists in the early 1920s and wrote most of his plays during this period. Of about forty plays written by Witkiewicz between 1918 and 1925, twenty-one survive, and only ''Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat'' met with any public success during the author's lifetime. The original Polish manuscript of ''The Crazy Locomotive'' was also lost; the play, back-translated from two French versions, was not published until 1962. thumb|upright|Self-portrait, 1924

After 1925, and taking the name 'Witkacy', the artist ironically re-branded his portrait painting which provided his economic sustenance as ''The S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Painting Company'', with the tongue in cheek motto: "The customer must always be satisfied". Several of the so-called grades of portraits were offered, from the merely representational to the more expressionistic and the narcotics-assisted. Many of his paintings were annotated with mnemonics listing the drugs taken while painting a particular painting, even if this happened to be only a cup of coffee. He also varied the spelling of his name, signing himself ''Witkac, Witkatze, Witkacjusz, Vitkacius'' and ''Vitecasse'' — the last being French for "breaks quickly".

In the late 1920s he turned to novel-writing, writing two works, ''{{ill|Farewell to Autumn|pl|Pożegnanie_jesieni}}'' and ''Insatiability''. Both are set in the near future, and as such have been sometimes considered to be part of the fantastika genre.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-05-18 |title=SFE: Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/witkiewicz_stanislaw_ignacy |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}</ref> The latter, his major work, encompasses geopolitics, psychoactive drugs, and philosophy. In 1935 he was awarded the Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature for his novels.<ref name="literat">{{cite web | url=http://literat.ug.edu.pl/autors/witkacy.htm | title=Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz | publisher=Virtual Library of Polish Literature | access-date=13 December 2011 | author=Prof. dr hab. Miłosława Bulowska Schielman}}</ref>

During the 1930s, Witkiewicz published a text on his experiences of narcotics, including peyote, and pursued his interests in philosophy writing, ''Concepts and Principles Implied by the Concept of Existence'' 1935.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://info-poland.icm.edu.pl/classroom/witkacy/mark.html|title=Witkacy's Theater of Life/The Search for Self|website=info-poland.icm.edu.pl|access-date=2018-10-09}}</ref> In 1934 he finishes perhaps his most famous literary work, the drama {{ill|Szewcy|pl|Szewcy}}, finally published in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-14 |title=Witkacy – biografia – LekcjaPolskiego.pl |url=https://lekcjapolskiego.pl/opracowania/witkacy-biografia/ |access-date=2022-09-08 |language=pl-PL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-31 |title=Witkacy – biografia – Witkacy – Zinterpretuj.pl |url=https://zinterpretuj.pl/opracowania/witkacy-biografia/ |access-date=2022-09-08 |language=pl-PL}}</ref> He also promoted emerging writers such as Bruno Schulz.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy |title=Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) |website=culture.pl|access-date=16 July 2022}}</ref>

==Death== Shortly after Poland was invaded by Germany in September 1939, Witkiewicz escaped with his young lover Czesława Oknińska 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Witkiew.htm|title=Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz|author1=Donald Pirie|author2=John Bates|author3=Elwira Grossman|access-date=16 April 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208023114/http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Witkiew.htm|archive-date=8 February 2009}}</ref> He convinced Czesława to attempt suicide with him by consuming Luminal, but she survived.<ref>Journal of Czesława Oknińska, quoted in: {{cite book|last1=Gerould|first1=Daniel Charles|last2=Witkiewicz|first2=Stanisław Ignacy|title=The Witkiewicz Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-0qcaoHr8IC|access-date=22 November 2009|year=1992|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-0994-0|page=275|chapter=Part 5: Philosophy and Suicide, 1931–1939|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-0qcaoHr8IC&pg=RA1-PA271}}</ref> The film ''Mystification'' (2010), written and directed by Jacek Koprowicz proposes, in surrealist fashion, that Witkiewicz faked his own death and lived secretly in Poland until 1968.<ref>{{Citation|title=Mystification|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1630645/|access-date=2018-10-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/138626/|title = Mystification| date=22 March 2010 }}</ref>

==Legacy== Witkiewicz had died in some obscurity but his reputation began to rise soon after the war, which had destroyed his life and devastated Poland. Outside of Poland his work was discussed as a precursor to post-WWII European drama in Martin Esslin's influential "Theatre of the Absurd" 1961,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The theatre of the absurd|author=Esslin, Martin|date=2004|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=1400075238|edition= 3rd, 1st vintage books |location=New York|oclc=54075141}}</ref> and later in {{ill|Hans-Thies Lehmann|lt=Hans-Thies Lehmann's|de}} ''Postdramatisches Theater'' 1999 (''Postdramatic Theatre'' 2006<ref>{{Cite book|title=Postdramatic theatre|last=Hans-Thies|first=Lehmann|others=Jürs-Munby, Karen|isbn=9780415268127|location=London|oclc=61229777|year = 2006}}</ref>). {{ill|Konstanty Puzyna|pl|Konstanty Puzyna}} collected his surviving dramatic writings in two volumes in "Dramaty" (Dramas) 1962 which revived interest in his plays in Poland. Through his translations and scholarship, Daniel Gerould introduced English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz.

Czesław Miłosz framed his argument in ''The Captive Mind'' around a discussion of Witkiewicz's novel, ''Insatiability''. The artist and theater director Tadeusz Kantor was inspired by the ''Cricot'' group, through which Witkiewicz had presented his final plays in Kraków. Kantor brought many of the plays back into currency, first in Poland and then internationally, including ''The Cuttlefish'' (1956) and ''The Water Hen'' (1969). Visual artist Paulina Olowska produced Witkiewicz's ''The Mother: An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue'' at the Tate Modern in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/performance/bmw-tate-live-2015/bmw-tate-live-paulina-olowska|title=BMW Tate Live: Paulina Olowska: 'The Mother An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue' – Performance at Tate Modern {{!}} Tate|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-09-23}}</ref>

Films which have Witkiewicz as the subject include ''Tumor Witkacego'' 1985,<ref>{{Citation|title=Tumor Witkacego|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1116853/|access-date=2018-10-18}}and</ref> ''Mystification'' 2010<ref>{{Citation|title=Mystification|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1630645/|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref> and ''Witkacy and Malinowski: a cinematic séance in 23 scenes'' 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/witkacy-malinowski-a-cinematic-seance-in-23-scenes |title=Witkacy & Malinowski: a cinematic séance in 23 scenes – Sydney Film Festival |website=sff.org.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730053353/https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/witkacy-malinowski-a-cinematic-seance-in-23-scenes |archive-date=2019-07-30}}</ref> Films based on his works include ''Ludiot i kalugericata'' 1968,<ref>{{Citation|title=Ludiot i kalugericata|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1144037/|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref>''Farewell to Autumn'' 1990,<ref name="auto2">{{Citation|title=Pozegnanie jesieni|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100400/|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref> ''Insatiability'' 2003,<ref>{{Citation|title=Insatiability|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382197/|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref>''Madame Tutli-Putli'' 2007<ref>{{Citation|title=Madame Tutli-Putli|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029440/|access-date=2018-10-18}}</ref> and ''Nursery Rhyme of a Madman'' 2017.<ref name="auto2"/>

Witkiewicz's paintings and pastel drawings are in the collections of the National Museum, Warsaw,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl|title=Muzeum Cyfrowe / Digital Museum|website=cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl|access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> the National Museum, Kraków, Museum of Literature, Warsaw and the Museum of Central Pomerania with 125 works in Słupsk Castle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.muzeum.slupsk.pl|title=Strona główna|website=muzeum.slupsk.pl|access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> The Metropolitan Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Witkiewicz |title=Witkiewicz |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> and Museum of Modern Art<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/interactives/objectphoto/objects/83948.html|title=Anna Oderfeld, Zakopane {{!}} Object:Photo |website=MoMA |access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> in New York, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=witkiewicz-stanisaw-ignacy|title=Works by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|website=artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref> Sydney hold important examples of his photography. The Villa Oksza Gallery of 20th century art of the Tatra Museum in Zakopane holds important examples of his photography and pastel drawings.

In the postwar period, People's Republic of Poland's Ministry of Culture decided to exhume Witkiewicz's body, move it to Zakopane, and give it a solemn funeral. This was carried out according to plan, though no one was allowed to open the coffin that had been delivered by the Soviet authorities.

On 26 November 1994, the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art ordered the exhumation of the presumed grave of Witkiewicz in Zakopane. Genetic tests on the remaining bones proved that the body had belonged to an unknown woman.<ref>"...Przeprowadzone badania wykazują, że szczątki kostne, przywiezione w 1988 roku ze wsi Jeziory na Ukrainie należą do kobiety w wieku 25–30 lat, o wzroście około 164 cm. ..." ("the tests conducted indicate that the bone remains, brought in 1988 from the village Jeziory in the Ukraine, belong to a woman 25–30 years old and about 164 cm tall...") from the protocol of the commission called by the Ministry of Culture and Art after the exhumation on 26 November 1994 of the presumed grave of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz at Pęksowy Brzyzek" cemetery in Zakopane. From: {{cite web |url=http://marczewski.pl/produ_witkacy_2.php |title=Maciej Pinkwart, "Wygraliśmy" |access-date=2015-01-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120020913/http://marczewski.pl/produ_witkacy_2.php |archive-date=20 January 2010 }} in: "Moje Zakopane" dn. 21 February 2005. (Source: ''Komunikat Komisji powołanej przez Ministra Kultury i Sztuki do spraw pochówku Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza.'' Prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Polak). Retrieved 11 November 2012.</ref>

==Works== ===Art philosophy=== * ''{{lang|pl|Nowe formy w malarstwie}}'' (1919), translated into English as ''New Forms in Painting and the Misunderstandings Arising Therefrom'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'', Quartet, 1993) * ''Szkice estetyczne'' (Aesthetic Sketches, 1922)

===Novels=== * ''{{ill|622 upadki Bunga, czyli Demoniczna kobieta|pl}}'' (1911) partial translation into English as ''The 622 Downfalls of Bungo or The Demonic Woman'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * ''{{ill|Pożegnanie jesieni|pl}}'' (1927) partial translation into English as ''Farewell to Autumn'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * ''Nienasycenie'' (1930) translated into English as ''Insatiability'' (Quartet Encounter, 1985) * ''{{ill|Jedyne wyjście|pl}}'' ("The Only Way Out") unfinished

===Plays=== [[File:Defrank Crumb Madman&theNun.jpg|thumb|upright|Bob DeFrank and Ann Crumb in a scene from Paul Berman's production of Witkacy's ''The Madman and the Nun,'' Theatre Off Park, 1979]] [[File:The Water Hen Lamplighter small.jpg|thumb|upright|Tobias Haller, James Curran, Nat Warren-White, and Betty LaRoe in Brad Mays' production of Witkacy's ''The Water Hen,'' Theatre Off Park, 1983]]

* ''Maciej Korbowa i Bellatrix'' (''Maciej Korbowa and Bellatrix'') (1918) * ''Pragmatyści'' (1919) (translated into English as ''The Pragmatists'') * ''Mister Price, czyli Bzik tropikalny'' (1920) (translated into English as ''Mr Price, or Tropical Madness'') * ''Tumor Mózgowicz'' (1920) (translated into English as ''Tumor Brainiowicz'') * ''Nowe wyzwolenie'' (1920) (translated into English as ''The New Deliverance'') * ''Oni'' (1920) (translated into English as ''They'') * ''Panna Tutli-Putli'' (1920) (''Miss Tootli-Pootli'') * ''W małym dworku'' (1921) (translated into English as ''Country House'') * ''Niepodległość trójkątów'' (1921) (translated into English as ''The Independence of Triangles'') * ''Metafizyka dwugłowego cielęcia'' (1921) (translated into English as ''Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf'') * ''Gyubal Wahazar, czyli Na przełęczach bezsensu'' (translated into English as ''Gyubal Wahazar, or Along the Cliffs of the Absurd: A Non-Euclidean Drama in Four Acts'') (1921) * ''Kurka Wodna'' (1921) (Translated into English as ''The Water Hen'') * ''Bezimienne dzieło'' (1921) (translated into English as ''The Anonymous Work: Four Acts of a Rather Nasty Nightmare'') * ''Mątwa'' (1922) (translated into English as ''The Cuttlefish, or The Hyrcanian World View'') * ''Nadobnisie i koczkodany, czyli Zielona pigułka'' (1922) (Translated into English as ''Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes, or The Green Pill: A Comedy with Corpses'') * ''Jan Maciej Karol Wścieklica'' (1922) (translated into English as ''Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat'') * ''Wariat i zakonnica'' (1923) (translated into English as ''The Madman and the Nun'') * ''Szalona lokomotywa'' (1923) (translated into English as ''The Crazy Locomotive'') * ''Janulka, córka Fizdejki'' (1923) (translated into English as ''Janulka, Daughter of Fizdejko'') * ''Matka'' (1924) translated into English as ''The Mother'' (in ''The Mother & Other Unsavoury Plays'', Applause, 1993) * ''Sonata Belzebuba'' (1925) (translated into English as ''The Beelzebub Sonata'') * ''Szewcy'' (1931–34) translated into English as ''The Shoemakers'' (in ''The Mother & Other Unsavoury Plays'', Applause, 1993)

===Filmography=== * ''Witkacy z Niną w Warszawie'' (1927), comedy film by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Starring him and his wife Jadwiga in the city of Warsaw. Film housed in the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw. Details: black and white film reel Pathé 9.5 mm, 5 minutes, silent film; remastered in 4K quality in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nina.gov.pl/projekty/digitalizacja/rekonstrukcja/ |title=Rekonstrukcja {{!}} NInA |website=nina.gov.pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114180529/http://nina.gov.pl/projekty/digitalizacja/rekonstrukcja/ |archive-date=2019-01-14}}</ref>

===Other works=== * ''Narkotyki — niemyte dusze'' (1932), partial translation into English as ''Narcotics'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * ''Pojęcia i twierdzenia implikowane przez pojęcie istnienia'' (Concepts and Statements Implied by the Idea of Existence) (1935) * ''Jedyne wyjście'' * ''Kompozycia fantastyczna'' * ''Pocałunek mongolskiego księcia''

==Sample artwork== <gallery mode="packed"> File:Jadwiga Janczewska, Zakopane MET DP237968.jpg|Jadwiga Janczewska, Zakopane 1913 File:Witkacy Czarny Staw.jpg|Black Lake 1907, Tatra Museum in Zakopane File:Witkacy Zima w Zakopanem.jpg|Winter Landscape at Zakopane after 1930, Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest File:MrsBerensonbyWitkacy.jpg|Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska 1918 File:Witkacy Nova Aurigae.jpg|Nova Aurigae 1918, Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature, Warsaw File:Witkacy Kompozycja 1.jpg|Composition 1922, National Museum, Kraków File:Witkiewicz-Fantazja-Bajka.jpg|Fantasy – Fairy-tale 1922, National Museum, Warsaw File:Witkacy-Fałsz kobiety (Maryla Grossmanowa i autoportret).jpg|Self-portrait with Mrs. Maryla Grosmanowa 1927, National Museum, Warsaw File:Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Portret chłopca 1934 rok.jpg|Portrait of a boy 1934, Silesian Museum (Katowice) File:Witkacy - Portret Zofii Dembowskiej-Romer - 1935-04-11 - KDM I 1929.jpg|Zofia Romer 1935 File:Witkacy-Autoportret 1938.jpg|Self-portrait 1938, Silesian Museum (Katowice) </gallery>

==Performances of work== * ''The Crazy Locomotive'' (''Szalona lokomotywa'') received its New York premier at the Chelsea Theatre in 1977, under the direction of Des McAnuff.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/The-Crazy-Locomotive-327362/cast|title=The Crazy Locomotive Original Off-Broadway Cast 1977 | Off-Broadway World|website=broadwayworld.com|accessdate=19 June 2023}}</ref> The Obie Award-winning production starred Dwight Schultz, Bob DeFrank and Glenn Close<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?id=2960&search_by=show |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-10-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907072617/http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?id=2960&search_by=show |archive-date=7 September 2009 }}</ref> in leading roles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070408/news_lz1a08des.html|title = The San Diego Union-Tribune – San Diego, California & National News}}</ref> [[File:The Water Hen - NYC, 1983.jpg|thumb|upright|James Fleming, Lee Taylor-Allan and Linda Chambers in Brad Mays' production of Witkacy's ''The Water Hen,'' Theatre Off Park, 1983]]

* Two New York premiers of Witkacy plays: ''The Madman and the Nun'' ''(Wariat i zakonnica)'' in 1979 under the direction of Paul Berman and ''The Water Hen'' ''(Kurka Wodna)'' directed by Brad Mays were staged by the ''Theatre Off-Park'',<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E0D81239F935A35752C0A960958260 | work=The New York Times | title=Editorial Notebook;Small Theater | first=Mary | last=Cantwell | date=6 January 1996 | access-date=24 May 2010}}</ref> in 1983.<ref>Mark Matusek, NY Times, [http://www.bradmays.com/reviews.html The Water Hen, NYC Production - 1983.] BradMays.com. Retrieved 21 July 2015.</ref> Broadway producer / Theatre Off-Park managing director Patricia Flynn Peate<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E4D81639F932A05753C1A965948260 | work=The New York Times | title=No Headline | date=31 October 1983 | access-date=24 May 2010}}</ref> produced both plays, which were well received by critics and audiences alike. Future New York Times theatre critic Mark Matousek, then writing for the theatrical journal ''Other Stages'', praised ''The Water Hen'' for "masterful comic direction,"<ref>{{cite journal | last = Matousek | first = Mark | title = Water Hen – (review) | journal = Other Stages | year = 1983 | url = http://bradmays.com/thewaterhenreview2.jpg }}</ref> and the piece was videotaped for permanent inclusion in the Lincoln Center's Billy Rose Theatre Collection. * The British premiere of "They" "(Oni)" was presented at the Polish Theatre Hammersmith, London by POSK, directed by Paul Brightwell in 1984 * The New York premiere of ''The Shoemakers'' ''(Szewcy)'' was presented by the ''Jean Cocteau Repertory'' under the direction of Włodzimierz Herman in 1987.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/24/theater/theater-shoemakers.html | newspaper=The New York Times |title=The Shoemakers by Stanislaw I. Witkiewicz, Poland's greatest modern playwright; first English-language performance by the Jean Cocteau Repertory| date=24 March 1987 | last1=Bruckner | first1=D. j r. }}</ref> * ''The Madman and the Nun'' was presented in 1989 by ''The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre'' at the ''Summer Music from Greensborough'', a Classical Music Festival in Greensborough, Vermont, and in Boston, at The Charlestown Working Theatre. Directed by Jonathan Edward Cross [a.k.a. Jonny ClockWorks]. The production used Actors alongside Life-sized Puppets. Two of the original Puppet Figures are in the collection of the Witkacy Teatre in Zarkopane' Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://southbrooklynpost.com/things-to-do/puppet-theatre-party/|title=The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre, Carroll Gardens, New ClockWorks~Puppet Theatre – South Brooklyn Post – News & Culture in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, Red Hook and Points Nearby|website=southbrooklynpost.com|date=29 July 2011 |access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref> * The New York premiere of Witkacy's ''Tumor Brainiowicz'' presented by ''La MaMa ETC'' was performed by ''The Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf'' (named after the Witkacy play ''Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf''), under the direction of Brooke O'Harra. This production was followed by Witkacy's ''The Mother'' in 2003, also under O'Harra's direction and also a New York premier. The production featured puppets and video.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lamama.org/archives/2003/THEMOTHER.htm|title=THE MOTHER|website=lamama.org|access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref> * In 2019 ''Witkacy/Two-Headed Calf'', a collaboration between CalArts Center for New Performance and STUDIO teatrgaleria, Warsaw, was directed by {{ill|Natalia Korczakowska|pl|Natalia Korczakowska}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://centerfornewperformance.org/projects/witkacy-two-headed-calf/|title=CalArts Center for New Performance – » WITKACY / Two-Headed CalfCalArts Center for New Performance|website=CalArts Center for New Performance|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-29}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}} * Sarah Boxer, "[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE6DD153FF937A15757C0A96E958260 A Polish Satirist Obsessed with Identity]". ''New York Times,'' 24 April 1998 * F. Coniglione, {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209021703/http://www.fmag.unict.it/~polphil/PolPhil/Witk/Witk.html |date=9 February 2008 |title=Polish Philosophy Page: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz }} * Halina Florynska-Lalewicz, Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora, Irena Kossowska, [https://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)] at culture.pl * Daniel Gerould, ''Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer'' (University of Washington Press, 1981) * [http://www.postpoppulp.org/author/display/13.html Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz Bibliography, including Bio] * Łozińska Hempel, Maria (1986). ''Z łańcucha wspomnień.'' Wydawnictwo Literackie.

==External links== {{commons category}} {{Wikiquote|Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz}} * {{OL author}} * [http://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-witkacy Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)] at culture.pl * [https://poezja.org/wz/Witkacy/ Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)] at poezja.org * [http://www.docstoc.com/docs/41763943/Witkiewicz-_-Futurism---The-Crazy-Locomotive Witkiewicz & Futurism – The Crazy Locomotive] * [https://culture.pl/en/interrupted-country/witkacys-madness-the-lost-manuscript-of-a-total-artist Witkacy's Madness: The Lost Manuscript of a Total Artist] on culture.pl {{Modernism}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy}} Category:1885 births Category:1939 suicides Category:Writers from Warsaw Category:Artists from Warsaw Category:Photographers from Warsaw Category:People from Warsaw Governorate Category:Clan of Nieczuja Category:Polish modern painters Category:20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights Category:Polish male dramatists and playwrights Category:Polish male novelists Category:20th-century Polish novelists Category:20th-century Polish painters Category:20th-century Polish male artists Category:20th-century Polish male writers Category:Polish male painters Category:20th-century Polish philosophers Category:Russian military personnel of World War I Category:Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature Category:Artists who died by suicide Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in Ukraine Category:Drug-related suicides in Ukraine