Me in a Barrel focuses

On May 7th, 1899, around noon, the sun was shining through the clouds, and fourteen-year-old Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz climbed into a barrel. Perhaps nothing from that day would have gone down in history were it not for a small photograph—using Susan Sontag’s words—"the only material trace of the moment".

The exhibition Me in a Barrel focuses on the theme of landscape in the early works of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Among the works presented are photographic landscapes taken by the artist during his teenage years, as well as early oil paintings depicting views of the Tatra Mountains. We decided to juxtapose the variety of artistic strategies found in Witkiewicz’s adolescent photographs with the extremely rare oil landscapes he painted at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. These works reveal a transition—from post-impressionist vibrancy of color patches and pronounced textures to the synthetism associated with Władysław Ślewiński and a shift in brushstroke technique. Comparing these works offers insight into the metamorphic nature of the first stage in Witkiewicz’s long journey of artistic evolution—one that, as he ironically put it himself, managed to avoid the traps of “neo-pseudo-cretinism, roguishness, neo-kabotinism, falsism, or deludism.”

In creating this exhibition, our goal was to take a closer look at the rarely exhibited, sparsely preserved early works of the artist, in order to highlight the beginnings of his two creative paths—painting and photography—and the relationship between them in the artistic practice of the young Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.

Witkiewicz’s interest in photography seems just as naturally rooted in the influence of his family and their social circle as his painterly inclinations. Taking amateur photographs was an almost ubiquitous activity among the Zakopane intelligentsia of the time, and the photographic passion of his father, Stanisław Witkiewicz, also played a significant role. […] Although Witkacy’s early photographs may appear similar to those of his father, they notably “emphasize the tangle of branches, the reflection of vegetation in water—elements that are both linear and expressive.” These images increasingly move away from documentary realism and toward artistic creation—clearly anticipating his later theory of art, which prioritized the construction of formal structures over mimetic imitation. In his youthful photographs, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz does not seek out dramatic action; instead, he builds tension—remarkably for a teenager—through subtle means. His sense of proportion, balance of form, and precise use of detail already show the seeds of mature artistic thinking. In one of his later poems, with the precision of a camera lens, he captures an image with the phrase, “a leaf floated across the black water.” A moment worthy, perhaps, of the Great Ribbon of Pure Form, a title he would later bestow with utmost seriousness.

The exhibition also features a seascape by Władysław Ślewiński, presented alongside photographs and an oil painting by Witkacy created during the young artist’s stay in Brittany.