Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885.1939) was a Polish writer, philosopher, art theorist, and painter; also known by the pseudonym Witkacy. Among the most significant figures of the European avant-garde, he was the theorist of the “Formist” group of painters and poets. He died by suicide and used all forms of art congenial to him to express his despairing view of the world.

He made study trips to Germany, Italy, and France. During World War I, he devoted himself to studying philosophy in Russia and fought in the Russian army. He was part of the “Formist” group of avant-garde painters and poets, becoming one of its leading theorists and directing a “Formist” theater. From 1925 he devoted himself mainly to portraits and experimented with drug use, recording its effects on vision. At the outbreak of World War II, faced with the collapse of Poland, he killed himself.