15 May – 9 October 2016
Art Gallery in Koziniec, a branch of the Tatra Museum
Zakopane, Droga na Koziniec 8
This exhibition tells the story of the strained marriage between Jadwiga ("Nina") Unrug and the artist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, which lasted from the spring of 1923 until Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (aka Witkacy) took his own life on the 18th of September, 1939. On display are photographs, many of which were taken by Witkiewicz (one of the most prominent Polish artists of the interwar period), including artistic portraits of his wife Nina as well as images of the couple’s life in Zakopane, their trips into the Tatra mountains and Nina’s flat in Warsaw.
Witkiewicz, mindful of the differences in their expectations and experiences, posed Nina challenges she wasn’t expecting when married. Years later she wrote that after many controversial incidents between them in the end “there were more and more women in his life, up until the point when we stopped being spouses and became only good friends”.
“Please know that I’ve never loved anyone but you, the rest is just play” – Witkiewicz wrote, after being entangled in many affairs. He would constantly reassure Nina about his feelings and display great affection towards her in numerous letters:
“I love you and miss you terribly. You have no idea how awful my life is without you... Only by being in a relationship with you one can sustain the commonness and wretchedness of existence... After all, life with me is better for you than parting... I love you terribly, but freedom is a great thing”.
In her memoirs, written after the Second World War, Nina emphasizes the “complicated mind of her husband” and his above-average personality. After he took his own life, she writes that “the greatest man in Poland has died”.
Exhibition Curators:
Kapsyda Kobro-Okołowiczowa
Stefan Okołowicz