Bruno Schulz has fallen victim to an interpretative stereotype. He has been made out to be a fetishist and masochist. This diagnosis has been based on his assumed artistic ‘confession’ – his drawings and The Booke of Idolatry. The exhibition in MOCAK and the accompanying publication intend to question this image, which appears to be an over-simplification of this extraordinary figure.

Schulz employed two languages. The history of literature and art knows artists who operate with both words and images. However, it is rare to find someone equally talented in both fields. His writings gorge themselves on their own excess. His drawings drone on about a subject like a mantra. Schulz  endeavoured to know and understand himself. He used two tools for this – the word and the image. Unfortunately, neither proved bulletproof.

Of his contemporaries, Nałkowska understood him best; they had a brief love affair. ‘From this torment, suddenly something good comes out, a few days of Bruno Schulz’s visit, his letters. He is too frail and weak to be my stalwart – but the world of his thoughts gives me a counterweight and respite.’

The exhibition at MOCAK will show several dozen drawings and prints by Bruno Schulz. We have also prepared an experiment with self-portraits. We have cut out representations of the artist’s face from larger compositions and arranged them in a sequence analysing his psyche. This new insight does not bear out the stereotypical interpretations of Schulz.

Maria Anna Potocka