“So far no one has found it necessary to deal with the Kafka’s dual talent, observing the parallelism of the two visions, as a draftsman and as a storyteller. As in writing, Kafka is also a very scrupulous realist in his drawings… and at the same time the creator of a fantastic world ”. With these words Max Brod, friend of the Prague writer, to whom he left his writings and drawings of him that he called “scribbles” to destroy them – which fortunately did not do – opens an unprecedented glimpse on the figure of Kafka. Upon his deathBrod published only a small number of drawings: most remained closed in a safe deposit box, first in Tel Aviv and then in Zurich. When he died, Max Brod left Kafka’s drawings to his secretary Ester Hoffe and upon her death in 2007, all the material stored in the Swiss safes went to the National Library of Israel after a lengthy trial. The cassettes contained manuscripts that had already been published over the years as well as many drawings, 150 in all, many of them unpublished.
The cover of ‘Kafka’s drawings’ Adelphi edition
Now all these “scribbles” of Kafka, preserved from Max Brod who saved them from Nazi barbarism and took them with him first in Israel and then Switzerland, they are published for the first time in Italy in a precious volume entitled ‘The drawings of Kafka’ edited by Andreas Kilcher and published by Adelphi Edizioni (pages 367 – euro 48) accompanied by a note from Roberto Calasso. The volume, created as a catalog, consists of three parts: an introduction followed by the main part where all the drawings by Kafka that have come down to us are illustrated, to which the explanatory texts proposed in the third part are linked. The order of the illustrations is chronological: most of them date back to the period between 1901 and 1907 and are often drawings which are not accompanied by texts and are often unsigned. Then there is a smaller group of drawings, connected to letters, diaries, notebooks, notes dating back to the period 1909-1924. The third group is made up of the ornamental figures, which arise from the writing process.
Kafka’s drawings are reproduced in color and generally the dimensions are those of the original (scale 1: 1). In many cases, these are stylized figures, almost sketches, drawings in which the great writer seems to let go of his hand and be guided by pure instinct. However, there is no lack of portraits and more defined figures that denote a good artistic ability in Kafka. The notebook of drawings also from the period 1901-1907 deserves a separate chapter where the author of the ‘Metamorphosis’ alternates defined figures with others that have just been sketched, with others that are still almost abstract.
A drawing (possibly a self-portrait) by Franz Kafka
Then there are a series of drawings made on small sheets slightly larger than a postage stamp in which men in various positions are represented in an extremely stylized way. At the end of the book an essay by Andreas Kilcare entitled ‘Draw and write in Kafka’ makes an analysis of these drawings with reference also to the influences that the Czech writer must have had in his life, from Japanese prints to the works of the Austrian painter and writer Alfred Kubin (who introduced him to Max Brod). Kilcare writes that Kafka’s drawings, of which he himself would have said “My scribbles are an attempt at primitive magic that I have repeated several times but has always failed”, must “be taken seriously in their figurative ambition and in their artistic expression “. He then adds: “They are not enigmatic hieroglyphs, but movements of a hand that draws without being inspired by models or schoolsand therefore does so freely in the absence of constraints “.