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Edward Wittig and Freemasonry

100%

Podniesinska K.

Modus. Prace z historii sztuki

2005

vol. 6

135-160

The paper presents Edward Wittig, a well-known sculptor in the period between the two world wars and at the same time an active member of the Grand National Lodge of Poland. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the sculptor's first contact with Masonic organizations took place in France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At that time Wittig was on familiar terms with a circle of people initiated into the Masonic ideas (Waclaw Rogowicz, Maksymilian Kirienko-Woloszyn) and related with the Paris Lodge of Travail et Vrais Amis Fideles. It is supposed that on his return to Poland (1914) the sculptor joined this Warsaw lodge. Little can be said about the artist's Masonic biography, however, the sources available seem to confirm a fairly high position attained by Wittig in the Polish Masonic hierarchy. A document of key importance here is especially the Bulletin Officiel Grande Loge de France for 20 March, 1923, in which Edward Wittig is described as a 'guarantor of friendship'. Among the requirements that a candidate for that position had to meet, in addition to his knowledge of the language and specific character of the country to be represented, was a demand that he should hold at least a master's degree in his parent organization. Therefore, it may be assumed that Wittig held this degree in Warsaw. As a 'guarantor of friendship' he was to care for the strengthening of fraternal relations between the two organizations, to inform Paris about all major events in the country represented (that is, in Poland) and, if need be, to take care of the French Masons on their arrival in Warsaw. Furthermore, for many years Wittig belonged to the narrow management of the para-Masonic formation Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) with about 3500 members in Warsaw, Cracow, and Lódz. Besides, the sculptor's name appears among the founder members of the National Labour Party (September 1914), the Polish-Greek Society, the Students' Sports and Athletics Club, the Polish Committee for Olympic Games, the Council of the Flying Club of the Polish Republic, and the elite Rotary Club, one of the largest international charitable organizations, grouping representatives of scientific circles, banking, and commerce. This impressive list of social initiatives closes with the Polish Artistic Club set up in 1917, likewise indirectly inspired by the Freemasons, with its seat at the Polonia Hotel in Warsaw. In the light of the above-presented facts it is justified to assume that the artist's membership of the Lodge was not a mere episode in his life, a means to receive lucrative commissions, but a consistent decision resulting from his outlook on the world and his beliefs. The conviction that the primary aim of art was to carry out moral principles in public life influenced the character of Wittig's sculptures. In the period concurring with the artist's most intensive activity in Freemasonry the predominant message of his works was a postulate for serving the Motherland, as well as honour, patriotism, and self-sacrifice for the benefit of the whole of society. In that period also his artistic idiom had changed. An air of eroticism in his Eve (1912) from the Trocadero Gardens in Paris had been replaced by solemnity, austerity, and dignity.

Between Rodin and Przybyszewski. Edward Wittig's Dionysian Classicism

100%

Podniesinska K.

Modus. Prace z historii sztuki

2006

vol. 7

159-217

The paper outlines the Parisian period (1900-1914) in the activity of Edward Wittig, a well-known sculptor of the period between the two world wars. At that time a decisive influence on the young artist's imagination and sculptural language was exerted by the work of Auguste Rodin (assimilated in the workshop of Rodin's pupil Marguerite Jouvray and Lucien Schnegg's atelier) in conjunction with the impulses coming from the circle of Stanislaw Przybyszewski. It was to Rodin that Wittig owed a symbolic, freely moulded form as well as a tremendous intensity of expressiveness achieved by modelling the entire figure, by showing the tension and contraction of each muscle. This characteristic mode of depicting the emotional expression of a sculpture through the play of the body appeared in, among other works, his 'Burden' (1902/1903) and 'Nostalgia' (1903). The psychological air was 'supplemented' in an equally suggestive manner by the stooped figures of 'Destiny' (1903), 'Despair', and 'Mourner'. Likewise, 'Anxiety' (c. 1904) remained within the range of Rodin's direct influence as one more interpretation of the French sculptor's 'Danaides' theme (1885). The female nude of a supple, slender figure and the face covered with her hair, who is clinging to the ground, brings to mind yet another sculpture by Wittig - 'Youth' (1907). His 'Woman in a Pensive Mood' reveals the same source of inspiration; it takes up Rodin's famous 'non finito' motif, a figure emerging from the rough block of marble in which fragments of the sculpture are still buried. In some of Wittig's sculptures we can find obvious echoes of the philosophies of Stanislaw Przybyszewski and Otto Weininger, while other works betray his fascination with Nietzsche. Inextricably involved in their epoch, they excellently reflect the overlapping of diverse relations. Nevertheless, Wittig succeeded in giving his sculptures the stamp of individuality. His symbolism based on the popular leitmotivs of the epoch was accompanied in the formal aspect by moderation and an intellectual command of media. This can be very well seen even in the works which evidently had their origins in the Young Poland movement, such as 'Destiny', 'Sphinx', 'Challenge' or 'Idol', which despite their small sizes evoke the impression of monumental enclosed compositional spaces. The turn of 1907 and 1908 witnessed the artist's growing tendency to replace his characteristic flowing, free line by the moulding of a sculpture on the basis of precise, mathematical calculations. In 1908 Wittig sculptured 'Awakening', a work which in terms of stylistic changes constituted a kind of turning point in his oeuvre, closing the period of Rodin's inspiring influence.

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Edward Wittig and Freemasonry

Between Rodin and Przybyszewski. Edward Wittig's Dionysian Classicism