[Self-Portrait]
A prolific painter and photographer, dramatist and philosopher, Witkiewicz remains a legendary figure in Polish cultural history not only for his multifaceted talent but also for his bohemian lifestyle and eccentric personality. Throughout his life, he made hundreds of self-portraits-sketches, paintings, and photographs-characterized by a searing self-scrutiny and existential anguish. Taken with a view camera with its lens extended by a rain pipe, this image is characteristic of the searching photographic portraits he made between 1912 and 1914, a period culminating in the suicide of his fiancée. Witkiewicz himself took his own life on the eve of World War II.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Self-Portrait]
- Artist: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Polish, Warsaw 1885–1939 Jeziory)
- Date: 1912, printed later
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 17.3 x 12.3 cm (6 13/16 x 4 13/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.100.131
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
1912
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
1913–14
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
ca. 1913
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
1912–13
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
ca. 1913
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