Borysłav. Świt publishes a review entitled “Wrażenia z wystawy. Wystawa obrazów Schulza” (Impressions from the Exhibition. The Exhibition of Schulz’s Paintings), signed with a penname “S. N-owa”.
“Impressions from the Exhibition” is a subjective description of Bruno Schulz’s works presented in Borysław* – Two Portraits, Spring Awakening and Circe are mentioned by title. According to the reviewer, the main theme of these works, created under the influence of artists such as Francisco Goya*, Félicien Rops*, Max Klinger, Gustav Klimt and Frank Wedekind, is a “phalanx of women”, for whom the meaning of life is “sensuality, frenzy and bacchantic delight”. At their feet “men crawl, their contorted faces revealing all the odiousness and perdition of the sensual world”. The artist depicts the souls of the portrayed people not in their expression (which is usually vague), but in the background – for example, surrounding them with figures that are objects of their imagination. All in all, the final assessment of Schulz’s works remains ambiguous – although he is known as “a talent of deep intuition and rich imagination”, the very singular specificity of his thematic interests seems quite striking; it carries a danger of developing mannerism and reflects the fact that the artist “has not yet reached the depths of his soul and has not yet spread it”.
The pen name “S. N-owa” probably hid the identity of the feature writer and educator Michał Friedländer*. (pls) (transl. mw)
See also: the reception of exhibitions until 1942.
