Paris. Bruno Schulz meets the Parisian art dealer André J. Rotgé and discusses with him the conditions for organising an exhibition in his gallery.
The meeting took place shortly after Schulz’s arrival in Paris. The exact date, however, is difficult to establish. It most likely did not take place on the first day but certainly before 5 August, because in a letter dated that day, Rotgé referred to an interview with Schulz which he had already had.
Schulz had already established contact with the art dealer in Paris. Although none of the surviving letters contain his name, Schulz did not find him by accident. Rotgé had been cooperating with Polish and Jewish artists active in Paris for some time. In his gallery at 140 Faubourg St. Honoré was exhibited in the second half of the 1930s by, among others: Marc (Marek) Sterling, Abraham Weinbaum, Mira Zylowa and, most importantly, Joachim Weingart, who took part in eight exhibitions, including individual ones. During the time Schulz was in Paris, Weingart was constantly present at the Galerie André J. Rotgé. In May and June 1938, he had an exhibition together with Mira Zylowa, and from August to October he showed his works at a collective exhibition. It was him, therefore, who had to put Schulz in touch with a befriended art dealer. Had they known each other before? Everything seems to suggest that. Their paths had crossed more than once. Weingart was born in Drohobych in 1895. He was a student of a middle school*, which Schulz attended two grades ahead. In 1912, he went to study at the Academy of Arts in Vienna and stayed there with breaks until 1921, that is when Schulz was also there. In September 1923, he had an individual exhibition in Lviv, and in 1932 in Warsaw. He left for Paris in 1925 and maintained close contacts with the artistic milieu of Lviv.
The Galerie André J. Rotgé, to which he led Schulz, was situated in a very prestigious location on the right bank of the Seine. The famous Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, with which such artists as Umberto Boccioni, Fernand Léger and Henri Matisse were associated, was located in the same street nearby. Given the language problems, Schulz had to come to the meeting accompanied by someone who was fluent in French. Nobody was more suited to this role than Weingart and he was probably the third participant in the conversation with the Paris art dealer. Schulz brought about a hundred drawings and probably also artworks from the series The Booke of Idolatry. Rotgé agreed to the proposal to organise an exhibition in his gallery, and perhaps at the first meeting it was agreed that it would be held that year, in the first half of November. (sr) (transl. mw)
