Witkacy started on his creative path as a painter. Painting, however, was to disappoint him. He came to see it as a craft, and so he set up the Portrait Painting Company, and painted some 4 500 portraits, the majority of which perished by fire in Warsaw during the war. The idea behind Witkacy’s company and its rules were a forerunner of conceptualism. He next experimented with image through photography, a medium in which he could see fully his wild, unbridled personality. His series of posed self-portraits certainly herald performance. Yet painting and photography are no match for the intellect. Thus, Witkacy employed words – indeed in three demanding fields at the same time: writing philosophical tracts, novels and theatrical pieces, to repeat acclaim.

He fell victim to history. Trapped between German and Soviet armies, he committed suicide.