[Self-Portrait]

Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz Polish

Not on view

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.

[Self-Portrait], Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Polish, Warsaw 1885–1939 Jeziory), Gelatin silver print

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