Saturday 6 October 2012

Hidden Magic

This week I saw an exhibition on the multitalent that was Bruno Schulz (1892-1942).

"Shifted Reality", in the Adam Mickiewicz Museum in Warsaw until November 20

Schulz was an eminent writer and painter in inter-war Poland, whose take on Jewish life, identity and the human condition was both magical and unsettling.

Bruno Schulz, Engraving,1921


Bruno Schulz, Autoportrait, 1933

Bruno Schulz, Engraving 1921






His death at the hands of a Nazi officer and the mystery around his remaining work (including a recent rediscovery, and illegal smugglings to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Memorial) continue to fascinate.  Check out the New York Times' slide show, "Painting under Coercion" here

Influenced: Jerzy Janisch, "Sisters", 1933












 
Years after Schulz' death, his surrealist novel Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (1937) was adapted by Wojciech Has into the award-winning "The Hour-Glass Sanatorium"(1973) - in full below.

The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973), with English subtitles


And if you can't get enough of Has, here is his other masterpiece, The Saragossa Manuscript (1965).

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), with English subtitles.

A super-human weekend to everyone.

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