Witold Wojtkiewicz
1879 - 1909

In 1898, Witold Wojtkiewicz began his art education in Wojciech Gerson's School of Drawing in Warsaw, which he quickly abandoned. He started writing a satirical column for the periodical Kolce (Spikes), which he signed with the pen-name "Wit-Woj." He also produced illustrations for Wędrowiec (Wanderer) and Tygodnik Ilustrowany (Illustrated Weekly). The artist made his debut in 1902 at the Salon of Aleksander Krywult in Warsaw, displaying a collection of his comic drawings. In the fall of 1903, Wojtkiewicz commenced his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under the supervision of Leon Wyczółkowski, but he did not regularly attend classes. He contributed caricatures of actors to Melpomene's File, made tragicomic sketches, and was one of the founders of "Zielony Balonik" ("The Green Balloon") cabaret. The artist also collaborated with the left-wing periodical Liberum Veto. He also befriended Eliza Pareńska, whose salon was the meeting place for the contemporary artistic society of Kraków.

After he graduated from the academy in 1906, Wojtkiewicz started successfully exhibiting his works (e.g., in Berlin at the Schulte Gallery). As a result, they were noticed by Maurice Denis and André Gide who arranged Wojtkiewicz’s one-man show in Paris at Galerie Druet in 1907. After the artist had returned from Paris, he befriended Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Roman Jaworski. He made drawings for Czarny Kot (Black Cat) and Chochoł (Capsheaf), satirical magazines in Warsaw. The painter was a member of the "Group of Five" and contributed to their exhibitions, as well as to the "Zero" group (1908), and the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka".

Witold Wojtkiewicz painted portraits, pictures inspired by literature (e.g., The Children's Crusade based on La Croisade des Enfans of Marcel Schwob), and symbolic compositions permeated with the awareness of the tragedy of existence. They are full of passion, hidden obsessions, tensions and fears. He created an unreal world inhabited by marionettes that were presented in series such as Circus, Madness, Some Children's Poses and Ceremonies. He often appealed to the imaginary reality of children. According to a critic: "The last works of the artist seem to be founded on an idea that art is an independent activity unrestricted by any but the artistic laws and operates in a domain of infinitely free human creativity that submits only to the rules of the imagination, yielding totally to deformation needs. Ceremonies, just as the subsequent, so-called ‘circus’ pictures represents the consistent creation of a new dimension of reality, a domain autonomous in relation to our surrounding world and ostensibly conventional" (see Juszczak 2000, p. 159).

-- Anna Król

Works in the collection: