VITKAC X NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW

VITKAC x NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW

VITKAC DS is a place identified not only with perfectly selected fashion, but also with pioneering and art. The name of the department store was chosen to commemorate the most eccentric of Polish artists, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, who lived for part of his life at 23 Bracka St. It was his work that inspired a collaboration that is unusual on the Polish market - VITKAC x National Museum in Warsaw.

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Present at Warsaw's National Museum until October 9, the exhibition Witkacy. Seismograph of the Age of Acceleration features more than 500 works by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, one of the most outstanding artists of the 20th century. The collection of paintings, drawings, pastels and photographs allows a new and more complete reading and understanding of the artist's work, shrouded in mystery. This unique accessibility of the works became the starting point for launching a project in cooperation with the Museum, during which we were guided by the desire to transfer the situations, emotions and appeal of the characters of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's works to our models. The results of the cooperation can be admired in the photo session and video material.

The first frame, is a shot during which the models were stylized in the likeness of the characters of the Double Portrait of Helena Lisinska and Jan Gadomski painted in 1939. A similar character is assumed by the second photograph, which takes us to one of the many portraits of Leon Reynel presented at the exhibition.

Witkiewicz's works are also a kind of documentation of the everyday fashion of the interwar period. In the portraits we can see mainly white silk or cotton blouses with collars, summer dresses and geometric patterns, as well as men's suits and outer garments. Following this pattern, VITKAC's interpretation of Witkiewicz's works presents styles set in the interwar period trend, built on the basis of top designers' collections for the fall-winter 2022 season available at VITKAC DS and on vitkac.com.

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"Witkacy loved art and he loved women."
[source: the portal Niezła Sztuka]

That's why, in opposition to the reticence of Jadwiga Witkiewicz, the artist's wife, a woman in an avant-garde colorful fur coat flashes by in a humorous shot under a painting from the collection of Szczecin's Pomeranian Bookstore.

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The artist has always been intrigued by women's superficiality and personality. The metaphorical multidimensionality of his female characters can be seen in one of the frames.

In the next shot, Portrait of Julian Tuwim
played like a "real character," creating a close relationship with the model.

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It is not without reason that a series of portraits characterized by emotion became part of the session. "Witkacy was very fond of being photographed and made all sorts of faces." [source: portal Niezła Sztuka]. The artist happened to create during drug sessions. As he himself admitted, sometimes intensified visionary experiences allowed him to create his best works. This fact became the starting point for the video, which at times takes on a psychedelic character.

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