Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879 - 1909)

Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879 - 1909)

Studied at the Drawing School in Warsaw under Adam Bodowski and Jan Kauzik.

Attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow under Leon Wyczółkowski.

In 1903-1904 he worked as an illustrator for the Krakow-based weekly Liberum Veto.

In 1905 he became a member of the Grupa Pieciu (Group of Five).

Painter, draughtsman and illustrator, Wojtkiewicz was a representative of the "Young Poland" movement.

His paintings are distinguished by a haunting, almost childlike vision of distorted gesture, fantasy, and color, often challenging aristocracy and pastoralism; a bizarre pre-Surrealistic Expressionism that announces many themes, trends, contrasts, and eccentricities that would become prevalent throughout Polish 20th century art.

I added Wojtkiewicz to this blog because he is one of my all-time favorite painters, especially as it concerns his work from around 1904-1906.  On deeper inspection I see little resemblance to other more renowned expressionists that were his contemporaries.