‘Mon cher Directeur et ami...’

Description

This was originally kept in an envelope titled 'Brouillon pour Sandberg de moi [?]. 1972'.
Contains a manuscript and typescript of an autobiographical text, especially detailed regarding his encounters with Jules Romain and Juan Gris. Written by Jacques Lipchitz himself.

In the same envelope was kept a text, one page long, without beginning, written in Jacques Lipchitz's hand. It starts with 'Aussi de toutes mes forces...'

Full translation:
'My Dear Director and Friend,
I'm writing you from my studio, where all my sculptures are finally ready to be sent to you for this exhibition that you have taken the trouble to organise. You can imagine how emotional I'm feeling looking at almost half a decade of work. It's a journey through my past; it's seeing my steps, sudden and hesitant, backwards and forwards, my wins and losses.
I look at my realist beginnings and follow the progressive ossification of 1915-16. Some memories are coming back to my mind. I remember a visit from Jules Romain in 1916. In my enthusiastic youth, I shared my dream with him: arriving at a sculpture as pure as crystal. During this period, I was full of my trip to Majorca, where from the top of the rocks, I observed what was happening in the depth of the sea. These rocks and what I could see from above impressed me so much that I wanted my sculptures to reassemble these rocks, marine plants and luminous seashells...
When Romain's words suddenly brought me back to reality: 'What do you know about the nature of a crystal?' he asked me, a little bit ironically. This made me think. Indeed, what did I know of the nature of a crystal? If not that it doesn't have an organic life?
Me who especially wanted to be a builder of life and not a destructor? These reflections created a violent crisis of which there are no traces left in my productions. And for a reason: I destroyed the few sculptures made at that time, to react against the sudden void open under my feet. Of course, my dissatisfaction has been excessive, explaining the destruction of these sculptures, which I regret now. An artist should never destroy his work, it brings nothing. We can't run away from ourselves, but to understand, I needed to get older.
That is when, while thinking of my past, that I realised that my father, the constructor, was taking a brick to build a house. Why would I not do the same of a crystal, build a man, a woman, a child, and not the contrary. Suddenly, I felt saved.
That is when my way of thinking rejoined the real cubists. In the same period, I met Juan Gris, this great artist so clairvoyant, so intellectually honest, so modest. We became friends straight away. The never-ending discussions about our first works, a clarity came forth in me, which will guide me until the end of my days.
I have stayed on the same land, where with the elements of my imagination, fed by the experiences of my everyday life, I'm building my art; from a brick to a house. And I want it warm and good for man.
My dear friend, I felt the need to share these words from seeing these sculptures. I can see that I've written a real confession.
In all friendship'.

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