Portrait of Józef Głogowski

In 1925, Witkacy devoted himself to the art of portraiture, realised within the framework of the one-man "S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Company", which was to become a source of quick profit and remedy financial troubles. The artist defined the rules for creating portraits in the technique of pastel, charcoal, crayons and pencil in detailed regulations, specifying with the letters A, B, C, D and E the nature of the five basic types and their combinations. He often created them under the influence of controlled experiments with psychoactive substances - drugs, narcotics or alcohol, aimed at discovering new formal means. He documented his state with sign abbreviations placed next to his signature. These images, codified as type C, were created during social gatherings and were used to paint friends. Unlike other portraits, the artist made them free of charge. Type C was characterised by a subjective approach to the model, psychological characterisation, as well as the introduction of caricatured deformation. Witkacy also assumed the approach to abstract composition - Pure Form. Type C is represented by the portrait of Józef Jan Głogowski, painted many times by Witkiewicz, whom he met in Zakopane at the home of August Zamoyski and his dancer wife, Rita Sacchetto. Głogowski was one of the artist's close friends, a companion on mountain hikes and a photographer who documented Witkacy's performance activities, including a series of famous mines. The first portraits of the Głogowski family were made in 1931 in exchange for photographic images commissioned from Głogowski. This portrait was created under the influence of cocaine (Co), which stimulated the intensification of reality. Devoid of clear deformation, the study with precisely rendered features is quite conventional in character. The realism of the view is broken by the way the head is placed in the background - the model's face emerges from an undefined space outlined with wide streaks of light pastel, which emphasises the slightly elongated outline of the portrayed's head.

Anna Hałata