Dvaja páni na W – Witkacy a Warhol. Od Firmy k Továrni.

The study is aimed at finding connections between the Polish artist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 – 1939), known under the pseudonym Witkacy, and the American artist with Ruthenian roots Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987). It is based on a comparison of Witkacy’s Portrait Company and Warhol’s Factory – two forms of image production that copied commercial business strategies. Through his company, Witkacy painted approximately five to seven thousand portraits, mostly in a standardized format of 65 x 48 cm, each signed with a specific signature. The signature contained abbreviations of letters defining the type of portrait according to the Working Rules drawn up by him, but also, for example, information about the current state of the artist: NP n – did not smoke for n days, NΠ n – did not drink for n days, cof – drank coffee, Co – used cocaine, Et – ether, Mesk – mescaline. Warhol’s Factory offered portraits made with a quick and simple technique combining photography and screen printing with painting and drawing in a standardized format of approximately 100 x 100 cm at a price of 25,000 dollars for the first one, and 5,000 dollars for each subsequent copy. In both cases, the artists challenged the classical understanding of art, the uniqueness of the artwork and the role of the artist. With a certain risk, the author of the study concluded that Warhol and his Factory are, to a large extent, the fulfillment of the anti-utopian vision of the future formulated by Witkacy, where the artist is demythologized, becoming a commercial producer of serial works, in which there is no space for the metaphysical experience of art. Warhol fulfilled this vision extremely effectively and, with an incomparably better financial result than Witkacy’s Company. In addition to the issue of commercialization wrapped in artistic provocation and irony, in the case of both artists it is also about playing with the market, clients and art critics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]