Antyk Dunikowskiego. Problematyka wpływu tradycji antycznej w kontekście Autoportretu. Idę ku Słońcu (1917–1920)

Abstract

The Antiquity of Dunikowski: the problem of the influence of traditional Antiquity in the context of Self-Portrait: I Am Walking Towards the Sun (1917/1920)

The article analyzes a previously unrecognized allusion in the work Self-Portrait: I Am Walking Towards the Sun (1917/1920) by Xawery Dunikowski to the famous Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and His Sons. It shows how a convergence of public and private concerns drove Dunikowski to conceive a vision of an artist-prophet that relies on an almost self-contradictory combination of archaic and Hellenistic compositional and formal means. The article argues that this apparent lack of unity may be the effect of a complicated, universalist conception of art and history that Dunikowski sought to develop within his work, as well as of profound uncertainty with regard to his conception of modern art. It also argues against a typically hermetic interpretation of the work, showing how it can be seen as an extension of the sculptor‘s ambition to become a public, monumental sculptor of modern Poland. The article is rooted methodologically in the concepts developed by Elizabeth Prettejohn in her books Modernity of Ancient Sculpture (2012) and Modern Painters, Old Masters (2017).