Self-portrait - professor Pulverston I, 1931

In the memoirs of Jadwiga Witkiewiczowa, one can read: "Stas liked to photograph himself - lots of his photographs were preserved but the biggest collection - the album - is gone. He had very developed facial muscles and facial expressions so he was able to mock certain people or fictionally create masks: a moron, a dandy, a villain from a movie and so on." (Jadwiga Witkiewiczowa, [translation] Agata Matusielanska, Wspomnienia o Stanislawie Ignacym Witkiewiczu, 1979).
Photography was extremely important for Witkacy as a credible, and speaking to one’s imagination, record. Photographs were a vast part of his private Museum of Curiosities. Following the artist’s idea, the variety of the collection was reflecting the complexity of the reality. Similarly, the taken photographs were reflecting by showing the never-ending spectrum of abilities of one’s facial expressions. The collection provided the multiplied self-image which was constantly supplemented by the further self-portraits and portraits made by his friends who were photographers - for example by Jozef Glogowski.
The artistic collaboration of Witkacy and Jozef Glogowski lasted from 1931 to 1937. It resulted in the most important photographs documenting Witkacy’s theatre of life, among others: The Uncle from California, the scared moron, the two bandits - the fierce and the shy one and the presented at the auction Professor Pulverston. Glogowski documented the facial’s expressions of Witkacy and his action which the artist improvised on different social occasions.
In the book ‘Against Nothingness. The photographs of Stanislaw Witkiewicz’ Stefan Okolowicz stated: "His gestures, often bordering on the absurd, are grotesquely exaggerated and theatrical, they taste of joke and the intention to shock, yet they express also wisdom and philosophical reflection. Witkacy the actor is inspired by Witkacy the experimental artist and philosopher." Okolowicz pointed out the titles which were given to the photographs by Witkacy: "The titles of Witkiewicz’s photographs if preserved / and very few have been preserved / make it easier to understand the message of particular photographs and have the same auxiliary function as the titles and informatory notes on Witkacy’s pencil drawings from the late 1920s and the 1930s. Their absence makes it impossible to reconstruct properly the ‘actions’ improvized by Witkiewicz. Although the titles and messages of particular scenes are attractive and bear witness to the artist’s ingenuity, most important is the very person of Witkacy the actor who demonstrates his personality and presence with those jocular and demonic situations. The improvized gestures and ‘expressions’ become the marks/symbols/ of the artist." (Ewa Franczak, Stefan Okolowicz, [translation] Jadwiga Piatkowska, Przeciw Nicosci. Fotografia Stanislawa Ignacego Witkiewicza, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow 1986, p. 34).
His father was Stanislaw Witkiewicz, a well-known critic, painter and writer, and the creator of the so-called ‘Zakopane style’ in architecture. During the years 1905-10, he studied on and off at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow under Jozef Mehoffer and under Wladyslaw Slewinski in Poronin. He travelled to Italy, France and Germany. In 1914, he took part in Bronislaw Malinowski's ethnographic expedition to Australia, from where he returned to Europe upon learning that World War I had started. His early paintings remained under the influence of Young Poland as well as P. Gauguin and W. Slewinski. He arrived at his unique expressionistic style later. As time passed, he abandoned painting as a result of his theoretical reflections on form. He founded the one-man ‘Portrait Company’ and limited himself to making pastel portraits for payment, often created under the influence of drugs allowing for experimentation with form. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz wrote 4 novels, over 40 dramas, as well as numerous articles and essays on painting, literature, theatre and philosophy. During the interbellum period, he mainly lived in Zakopane. After the start of World War II, he fled from the Germans to the eastern border (currently in the Ukraine), where on 18 September 1939, he committed suicide in the village of Jeziory (Velyki Ozera) in the Polesie region.

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