This brief work of fiction by Julio Cortázar, which is dedicated to the Venezuelan painter Jacobo Borges, was inspired by the painting Reunión con un círculo rojo. The Argentinean writer’s main character in the story, Jacobo,  steps into a restaurant to take shelter from the rain in the German city of Wiesbaden. In the restaurant, he notices an unknown woman, an English tourist. The tense, mysterious environment and the suspicious actions of the waiters convince Jacobo that he should protect the woman, and when she leaves the restaurant, he follows her. His apparent intention is to make sure that she reaches her destination safely. But something happens, and the protagonist inexplicably returns to the restaurant. The end of the story is therefore left in doubt.      

This story by the distinguished writer Julio Cortázar (1914–84) appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition Jacobo Borges: Magia de un realismo crítico held at the Museo de Arte Moderno de México (1976). It was also published in the catalogue presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes in the capital city of Venezuela for the Jacobo Borges exhibition organized by the GAN (Caracas: Galería de Arte Nacional, 1976). It also appeared in the Papel Literario section of the El Nacional newspaper in Caracas on August 1, 1976. The author, who was born in Argentina and lived in France, included the story in his book Alguien que anda por ahí (Madrid: Ediciones Alfaguara, 1977).    

Cortázar went to Venezuela in 1974 to attend the Encuentro Latinoamericano de Periodismo. While he was there, he met the Venezuelan painter Jacobo Borges and they became good friends. Although Cortázar’s story has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of Borges’s painting Reunión con un círculo rojo, it is an example of how links can be forged between different disciplines—in this case literature and the visual arts—to create a sort of intertextuality, since the writing evokes the ghostly figures, the tension, and the incomprehensible environment expressed in the Venezuelan artist’s painting.     

[Regarding the work produced by Jacobo Borges, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: “On the paintings of Jacobo Borges,” by the critic Carter Ratcliff (doc. no. 1060564); by Donald Kuspit, “Jacobo Borges’s creation of potential space” (doc. no. 1060608); by Perán Erminy, “Una exposición de obras de Jacobo Borges” (doc. no. 1060424); by Inocente Palacios, “Jacobo Borges” (doc. no. 1060361); and by Roberto Guevara, (untitled) [“Un día el poeta sentó la belleza en sus rodillas…”] (doc. no. 1060477). See also the essay by historian Berta Taracena, “Jacobo Borges en México” (doc. no. 1063795); the newspaper review by Elizabeth Pérez Luna, “Jacobo Borges: La pasión de la identidad” (doc. no. 1063714); as well as the following interviews conducted by Lenelina Delgado, “Somos una ficción” (doc. no. 1063831); Armando J. Florez and Aliana González, “El artista debe superar las limitaciones de las ideologías: Jacobo Borges en Nueva York” (doc. no. 1065435); and José Colin, “Entre la acción colectiva y la búsqueda individual: Jacobo Borges” (doc. no. 1063769). The critic Juan Calzadilla wrote two essays about the artist: “Presentación” (doc. no. 1060392), and (untitled) [“Hasta ahora lo que entre nosotros se había llamado…”] (doc. no. 1060684)].