Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
,
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
, and
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs.
Duties and types of photograp ...
who made his career in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of
modern sculpture. As a child, he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden
farm tools. Formal studies took him first to
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
, then to
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, then to the
École des Beaux-Arts
; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean
geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the
symbolic allusions of
representational art
Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else.Mitchell, W. 1995, "Representation", in F Lentricchia & T McLaughlin (eds), ''Critical Terms for Literary Study'', 2nd edn, University of Chicago Press, Chica ...
. Brâncuși sought inspiration in non-European
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
s as a source of
primitive exoticism
Exoticism (from ''exotic'') is the style or traits considered characteristic of a distant foreign country. In art and design it is a trend where creators become fascinated with ideas and styles from distant regions and draw inspiration from them. ...
, as did
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
,
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
,
André Derain
André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.
In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States.
Life and career
Early ...
, and others. However, other influences emerge from
Romanian folk art traceable through
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
and
Dionysian
The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fri ...
tradition
A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...
s.
Early years

Brâncuși grew up in the village of
Hobița,
Gorj, near
Târgu Jiu
Târgu Jiu (, is the capital city, capital of Gorj County in the Oltenia region of Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathian Mountains, Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu (river), Jiu. Eight localities are administered by the ...
, close to Romania's
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
, an area known for its rich tradition of
folk crafts, particularly woodcarving. Geometric patterns of the region are seen in his later works such as the
Endless Column created in 1918.
His parents Nicolae and Maria Brâncuși were poor peasants who earned a meagre living through back-breaking labor; from the age of seven, Constantin herded the family's flock of sheep. He showed talent for carving objects out of wood and often ran away from home to escape the bullying of his father and older brothers.
At the age of nine, Brâncuși left the village to work in the nearest large town. At the age of eleven, he went into the service of a grocer in Slatina; and then he became a domestic in a public house in Craiova, where he remained for several years. When he was 18, Brâncuși created a violin by hand with materials he found around his workplace. Impressed by Brâncuși's talent for carving, an industrialist enrolled him in the Craiova School of Arts and Crafts (''școala de arte și meserii''), where he pursued his love for woodworking, graduating with honors in 1898.
He then enrolled in the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, where he received academic training in sculpture. He worked hard and quickly distinguished himself as talented. One of his earliest surviving works, under the guidance of his anatomy teacher,
Dimitrie Gerota, is a masterfully rendered
écorché (statue of a man with skin removed to reveal the muscles underneath) which was exhibited at the
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum () is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania, and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's most prestigious concert hall and home of the "Geor ...
in 1903.
Though just an anatomical study, it foreshadowed the sculptor's later efforts to reveal essence rather than merely copy outward appearance.
Working in Paris
In 1903, Brâncuși traveled to
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, and from there to Paris. In Paris, he was welcomed by the community of artists and intellectuals brimming with new ideas. He worked for two years in the workshop of
Antonin Mercié
Marius Jean Antonin Mercié (October 30, 1845 in Toulouse – December 12, 1916 in Paris), was a French Sculpture, sculptor, Medalist, medallist and Painting, painter.
Biography
Mercié entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, ...
of the
École des Beaux-Arts
; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
and was invited to enter the workshop of
Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
. Even though he admired the eminent Rodin he left the Rodin studio after only two months, saying, "Nothing can grow under big trees."
[
After leaving Rodin's workshop, Brâncuși began developing the revolutionary style for which he is known. His first commissioned work, ''The Prayer'', was part of a gravestone memorial. It depicts a young woman crossing herself as she kneels, and marks the first step toward abstracted, non-literal representation, and shows his drive to depict "not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things." He also began doing more carving, rather than the method popular with his contemporaries, that of modeling in clay or plaster which would be cast in metal, and by 1908 he worked almost exclusively by carving.
In the following few years, he made many versions of ''Sleeping Muse'' and '' The Kiss'', further simplifying forms to geometrical and sparse objects.
His works became popular in France, Romania, and the United States. Collectors, notably John Quinn, bought his pieces, and reviewers praised his works. In 1913 Brâncuși's work was displayed at both the ]Salon des Indépendants
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...
and the first exhibition in the U.S. of modern art, the Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...
.
In 1920, he developed a notorious reputation with the entry of ''Princess X
''Princess X'' is a sculpture by the artist Constantin Brâncuși depicting the Princess Marie Bonaparte, a psychoanalyst in her own right and great supporter of Freud. An initial version in marble is now in the Sheldon Memorial Art Galleries at ...
'' in the Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
. The phallic appearance of this large, gleaming bronze piece scandalized the Salon and, despite Brâncuși's explanation that it was simply meant to represent the essence of womanhood, it was removed from the exhibition. ''Princess X'' was revealed to be Princess Marie Bonaparte, direct descendant of the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
. The sculpture has been interpreted by some as symbolizing her obsession with the penis and her lifelong quest to achieve vaginal orgasm, with the help of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
.
Around this time, Brâncuși began crafting the bases for his sculptures with much care and originality because he considered them important to the works themselves.
One of his major groups of sculptures involved the '' Bird in Space'' — simple abstract shapes representing a bird in flight. The works are based on his earlier ''Măiastra'' series. In Romanian folklore the Măiastra is a beautiful golden bird who foretells the future and cures the blind. Over the following 20 years, Brâncuși made multiple versions of ''Bird in Space'' out of marble or bronze. Athena Tacha Spear's book, ''Brâncuși's Birds,'' (CAA monographs XXI, NYU Press, New York, 1969), first sorted out the 36 versions and their development, from the early '' Măiastra'', to the ''Golden Bird'' of the late teens, to the ''Bird in Space'', which emerged in the early 1920s and which Brâncuși developed throughout his life.
One of these versions caused a major controversy in 1926 when photographer Edward Steichen
Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...
purchased it and shipped it to the United States. Customs officers did not accept the ''Bird'' as a work of art and assessed customs duty on its import as an industrial item. After protracted court proceedings, this assessment was overturned, thus confirming the Bird's status as a duty-exempt work of art. The verdict was somewhat influenced by the Judge Justice Waite's personal appreciation of the art calling it 'beautiful', 'symmetrical', and 'ornamental'. The ruling also established the important principle that "art" does not have to involve a realistic representation of nature, and that it was legitimate for it to simply represent an abstract concept – in this case "flight".
His work became increasingly popular in the U.S, where he visited several times during his life. Worldwide fame in 1933 brought him the commission of building a meditation temple, the Temple of Deliverance, in India for the Maharaja
Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...
h of Indore
Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...
, Yeshwant Rao Holkar. Holkar had commissioned three "L'Oiseau dans l'Espace"—in bronze, black and white marble—previously, but when Brâncuși went to India in 1937 to complete the plans and begin construction, the Mahrajah was away and, supposedly, lost interest in the project which was to be an homage to his wife, the Maharani Margaret Holkar, who had died when he returned. Of the three birds, the bronze one is in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and the two marble birds are currently in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Australia.
In 1938, he finished the World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
monument in Târgu-Jiu where he had spent much of his childhood. '' Table of Silence'', '' The Gate of the Kiss'', and '' Endless Column'' commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Romanians who in 1916 defended Târgu Jiu from the forces of the Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
. The restoration of this ensemble was spearheaded by the World Monuments Fund and was completed in 2004.
The Târgu Jiu ensemble marks the apex of his artistic career. In his remaining 19 years he created fewer than 15 pieces, mostly reworking earlier themes, and while his fame grew, he withdrew. Brâncuși received his first retrospective in 1955 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1955 ''Life'' magazine reported, "Wearing white pajamas and a yellow gnome-like cap, Brâncuși today hobbles about his studio tenderly caring for and communing with the silent host of fish, birds, heads, and endless columns which he created."
Brâncuși was cared for in his later years by a Romanian refugee couple. He became a French citizen in 1952 in order to make the caregivers his heirs, and to bequeath his studio and its contents to the Musée National d'Art Moderne
The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou. In 2021 it ranked 10th in the list of ...
in Paris. In 2021, for IRCAM and Centre Pompidou's Festival Manifeste, the intermedial large-scale installation ''Infinite Light Columns / Constellations of The Future, tribute to Constantin Brancusi'' by artists duo Arotin & Serghei has been installed on Renzo Piano's IRCAM Tower on Centre Pompidou Square, on the opposite site to Brancusi's Studio.
Personal life
Brâncuși dressed simply, reflective of his Romanian peasant background. His studio was reminiscent of the houses of the peasants from his native region: there was a big slab of rock as a table and a primitive fireplace, similar to those found in traditional houses in his native Oltenia
Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...
, while the rest of the furniture was made by him out of wood. Brâncuși would cook his own food, traditional Romanian dishes, with which he would treat his guests.[Sandqvist, p. 249]
Brâncuși held a large spectrum of interests, from science to music, and was known to play the violin. He would sing old Romanian folk songs, often expressing his feelings of homesickness
Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...
. After the installment of communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
, the artist never permanently returned to his native Romania, but did visit eight times.
His circle of friends included artists and intellectuals in Paris such as Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, Henri Pierre Roché, Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
, Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
, Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
, Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
, Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...
, Peggy Guggenheim
Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...
, Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...
, and Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...
. He was an old friend of Romany Marie,[Robert Shulman. '' Romany Marie: The Queen of ]Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
'' (pp. 85–86, 109). Louisville
Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...
: Butler Books, 2006. . who was also Romanian, and referred Isamu Noguchi
was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...
to her café in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
.
Although surrounded by the Parisian avant-garde, Brâncuși never lost contact with Romania and had friends from the community of Romanian artists and intellectuals living in Paris, including Benjamin Fondane, George Enescu
George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanians, Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history.
Biography
En ...
, Theodor Pallady
Theodor Pallady (; 11 April 1871 – 16 August 1956) was a Romanian painter.
Biography
Theodor Pallady was the son of Ioan Pallady and Maria Cantacuzino, the older sister of Romanian diplomat Neculai B. Cantacuzino. He was born in Iași, Roman ...
, Camil Ressu, Nicolae Dărăscu, Panait Istrati, Traian Vuia
Traian Vuia or Trajan Vuia (; 17 August 1872 – 3 September 1950) was a Romanian inventor and List of aviation pioneers, aviation pioneer who designed, built, and tested the first tractor configuration, tractor monoplane. He was the first to de ...
, Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...
, Emil Cioran, Natalia Dumitresco, and Paul Celan
Paul Celan (; ; born Paul Antschel; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a German-speaking Romanian poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translation, literary translator. He adopted his pen name (an anagram of the Romanian spelling Ancel ...
. Another Romanian scholar wrote on Brâncuși, Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and in ...
.
Brâncuși held a particular interest in mythology, especially Romanian mythology, folk tales, and traditional art (which also had a strong influence on his works), but he became interested in African and Mediterranean art as well.
A talented handyman, he built his own phonograph
A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...
and made most of his furniture, utensils, and doorways. His worldview valued "differentiating the essential from the ephemeral," with Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, Lao-Tzu, and Milarepa
Jetsun Milarepa (, 1028/40–1111/23) was a Tibetan , who was famously known as a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple. He is generally considered one of Tibet's most fa ...
as influences. Reportedly, he had a copy of the first ever translation from the Tibetan into French of Jacques Bacot's Le poete tibetain Milarepa: ses crimes, ses épreuves, son Nirvana that he kept by his bedside. He identified closely with Milarepa's mountain existence since Brancusi himself came from the Carpathian Mountains of Romania and he often thought he was a reincarnation of Milarepa. He was a saint-like idealist and near ascetic, turning his workshop into a place where visitors noted the deep spiritual atmosphere. However, particularly through the 1910s and 1920s, he was known as a pleasure seeker and merrymaker in his bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers.
* Bohemian style, a ...
circle. He enjoyed cigarettes, good wine, and the company of women. He had one child, John Moore, with the New Zealand pianist Vera Moore. He never acknowledged his son as his own.[
]
Death and legacy
Brâncuși died on March 16, 1957, aged 81. He was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse
Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1 ...
in Paris. Alexandre Istrati and Natalia Dumitresco were later buried in the same grave. This cemetery also displays statues that Brâncuși carved for deceased artists.
At his death, Brâncuși left 1200 photographs and 215 sculptures. He bequeathed part of his collection to the French state
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against G ...
on condition that his workshop be rebuilt as it was on the day he died. This reconstruction of his studio, adjacent to the Pompidou Centre
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, is open to the public. Brâncuși's studio inspired Swedish architect Klas Anshelm's design of the Malmö Konsthall, which opened in 1975.
In September 1957, African American sculptor Richard Hunt traveled from Chicago to Paris to view Brancusi's studio. Hunt's visit left an enduring impression on the 22-year-old artist, not only because of the artistic influence of Brancusi and exploration of biomorphic abstraction in sculpture but also because of the way which Hunt chose to live the majority of his life. Like Brancusi, Hunt slept in his own studio surrounded by his art and the tools used in his practice for much of his life.
Brancusi's ''Bird in Space'' sculptures inspired the Modernist poet, Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, specifically his late ''Cantos'' which were written in the mid-twentieth century. The literary critic Lucy Jeffery highlights ways in which Brancusi's sculptural form influenced Ezra Pound, analysing Pound's ''Canto CXVII et seq., 815''. Through close textual analysis and with direct reference to Brancusi's comments on his own creative process, Jeffery highlights how Pound's and Brancusi's sculptural process and resulting style is one of ambiguity and tension between: levity and weight, simplicity and complexity, ease and struggle. As Jeffery remarks: 'Despite their drive towards an holistic artwork, neither Brancusi nor Pound could, to borrow lbertBoime's phrasing, "emancipate" their art from the material or social context to which it belonged.' In the article, Jeffery contextualises Brancusi's work in relation to the sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska, photographer Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
, and writers such as Mina Loy
Mina Loy (born Mina Gertrude Löwy; 27 December 1882 – 25 September 1966) was a British-born artist, writer, poet, playwright, novelist, painter, designer of lamps, and bohemian. She was one of the last of the first-generation modernists to ...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
, and Peter Russell.
In 1962, Georg Olden used Brâncuși's '' Bird in Space'' as the inspiration behind his design of the Clio Award
The Clio Awards, also simply known as The Clios, is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. The awar ...
statuette.
In November 1971, was established in his birth village Hobița, as a branch of the .
Brâncuși was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
in 1990.
Google commemorated his 135th birthday with a Doodle
A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract art, abstract lines or shapes, generally w ...
in 2011 consisting of seven of his works.
Brâncuși's works are housed in museums around the world: in Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
at the National Museum of Art and Craiova Art Museum, in the US at the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
(New York City) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
, the former holding the largest collection of Brâncuși sculptures in the United States.
Constantin Brâncuși University in Târgu Jiu
Târgu Jiu (, is the capital city, capital of Gorj County in the Oltenia region of Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathian Mountains, Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu (river), Jiu. Eight localities are administered by the ...
and a metro station
A metro station or subway station is a train station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the syste ...
in Bucharest are named after him.
In 2015, the Romanian Parliament declared February 19 "The Brâncuși Day", a working holiday in Romania.
Director Mick Davis plans to make a biographical film about Brâncuși called ''The Sculptor'', and British director Peter Greenaway said in 2017 that he is working on a film called '' Walking to Paris'', a film which shows Brâncuși's journey from Bucharest to Paris.
Art market
Brâncuși's piece '' Madame L.R.'' sold for €29.185 million ($37.2 million) in 2009, setting a record price for a sculpture sold at auction.
In May 2018, ''La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée'' (''Portrait de Nancy Cunard''), a polished bronze on a carved marble base (1932), sold for US$71 million (with fees) at Christie's New York, setting a world record auction price for the artist.
Brâncuși on his own work
Selected works
Both '' Bird in Space'' and ''Sleeping Muse I'' are sculptures of animate objects; however, unlike ones from Ancient Greece or Rome, or those from the High Renaissance period, these works of art are more abstract in style.
'' Bird in Space'' is a series from the 1920s. One of these, constructed in 1925 using wood, stone, and marble (Richler 178) stands around 72 inches tall and consists of a narrow feather standing erect on a wooden base. Similar models, but made from materials such as bronze, were also produced by Brâncuși and placed in exhibitions.
''Sleeping Muse I'' has different versions as well; one, from 1909 to 1910, is made of marble and measures 6 ¾ in. in height (Adams 549). This is a model of a head, without a body, with markings to show features such as hair, nose, lips, and closed eyes. In ''A History of Western Art'', Adams says that the sculpture has "an abstract, curvilinear quality and a smooth contour that create an impression of elegance" (549). The qualities which produce the effect can particularly be seen in the shape of the eyes and in the set of the mouth.
Other works
* ''Bust of a boy'' (1906)
* ''The Prayer'' (1907)
* ''La Sagesse de la Terre'' (1908)
* ''Sleeping Muse'' (1910), Metropolitan Museum of Art
* ''Prometheus'' (1911)
* ''Mademoiselle Pogany'' (1912), Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
* ''Miss Pogany'' (1913,) drawing, the Botarro Collection
* '' The Kiss'' (1916), Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
* ''Princess X
''Princess X'' is a sculpture by the artist Constantin Brâncuși depicting the Princess Marie Bonaparte, a psychoanalyst in her own right and great supporter of Freud. An initial version in marble is now in the Sheldon Memorial Art Galleries at ...
'' (1916),
* ''Madame L.R.'' (1914–1918)
* ''A Muse'' (1917)
* ''Chimera'' (1918)
* ''Eileen Lane'' (1922), the Botarro Collection
* '' Bird in Space'' (1924), Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
* ''Portrait of Nancy Cunard'' (also called ''Sophisticated Young Lady'') (1925–1927)
* ''Le Poisson'' (1926)
* ''Portrait of James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
'', for ''Tales Told of Shem and Shaun'' (Black Sun Press, Paris, 1929)
* ''Le Coq'' (1935)
* Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu
The Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu () is an homage to the Romanian heroes of the World War I, First World War. The ensemble comprises three sculptures: ''The Table of Silence'' (''Masa tăcerii''), ''The Gate of the K ...
( Endless Column) (1935)
* ''Blonde Negress I'' (1926), Toledo Museum of Art
* ''White Negress II'' (1928), Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
File:'Fish' by Constantin Brâncusi, Tate Modern.JPG, Brancusi ''Fish'' Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...
Collection
In fiction
* Robert McAlmon's 1925 collection of short stories '' Distinguished Air'' includes one that revolves around an exhibition of ''Princess X''. In 1930 the watercolour painter Charles Demuth painted ''Distinguished Air'', based on this story.
*In Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel ''Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, esp ...
'', Anthony Blanche remarks in relating a story to Charles Ryder that "I have two sculptures by Brancusi and several pretty things" ic
*In the 1988 movie ''Short Circuit 2
''Short Circuit 2'' is a 1988 American science fiction comedy film, the sequel to the 1986 film ''Short Circuit''. It was directed by Kenneth Johnson and starred Fisher Stevens as Ben Jahrvi, Michael McKean as Fred Ritter, Cynthia Gibb as Sand ...
'', a man walking through an outdoor exhibition
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...
speculates that the stationary Johnny 5 robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
, who is also admiring the exhibit, is "an early Brâncuși."
*In the 1999 science fiction series '' Total Recall 2070'', one episode ("Astral Projections") featured an artifact called the "Brancusi Stone" because it looks like one of Brâncuși's sculptures.
*In the 2000 film '' Mission to Mars'', the "Face on Mars" is modeled after Brâncuși's ''Sleeping Muse''.
Apeirogon by Colum McCann p212
References
Bibliography
*Tom Sandqvist, ''Dada East – The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire'', MIT Press, 2006,
*Adams, Laura S. ''A History of Western Art''. 4th ed. New York: McGraw–Hill, 2005.
*Cristea, Simion Doru. "O escultor Constantin Brâncusi e a consistência paremiológica da sua arte / The Sculptor Constantin Brâncusi and the Paremiological Consistence of His Art." Proceedings of the Twelfth Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs, November 4 to 11, 2018, at Tavira, Portugal. Eds. Rui J.B. Soares and Outi Lauhakangas. Tavira: Tipografia Tavirense, 2019. 252–282. With 7 illustrations.*Richler, Martha. ''National Gallery of Art, Washington: A World of Art''. London: Scala Books, 1998.
*Neutres, Jerome
''Brâncuși New York, 1913–2013''
. New York: Editions Assouline, 2014.
*Varia, Radu. ''Brancusi''. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.
External links
Support for the inclusion of "Heroes' Way", the most prominent monumental ensemble in the region as well as one of Brâncusi's major creations, in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites
An excerpt from the transcript
of ''Brâncuși versus United States''
in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070323181441/http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_22_0.html Brâncușiin the Guggenheim Museum.
*
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Public domain image resources