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Constantin Brâncuși

Romanian sculptor, photographer and painter (1876–1957)

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  • 6 chapters
Portrait of Brâncuşi .
Edward Steichen · Public domain

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Biography

Childhood and education in Romania

Constantin Brâncuși was born on February 19, 1876, in the village of Hobița, in Gorj County. His parents were Nicolae Radu and Maria Brâncuși. The family supported itself through farming, raising livestock, and woodworking skills passed down through generations.

He attended primary school in Peștișani from 1884 to 1887. At the age of eleven, he left his family home and went to Târgu Jiu. For a few months, he worked for a dyer named Moscu, who taught him to prepare vegetable dyes and color wool for carpets. He later worked at a café. After spending some time with his half-brother Ion, who ran an inn in Peștișani, Brâncuși moved to Craiova in 1889. He worked in a warehouse and found employment at a grocery store in Slatina in September 1892.

In Craiova, his skill with wood drew attention. At eighteen, he made a violin from materials he found at his workplace. In 1894, he entered the Craiova School of Arts and Crafts. He studied drawing, modeling, woodcarving, and cabinetmaking, completing the course in 1898.

That year, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. For the entrance examination, he made a charcoal drawing of a plaster reproduction of Laocoön and His Sons, which he studied again in clay and plaster in 1900. His training included anatomy lessons with the physician Dimitrie Gerota. The Écorché, completed under Gerota's direction, shows a man without skin, exposing the musculature. The work was exhibited at the Romanian Athenaeum in 1903.

Brâncuși received his diploma in 1902. He completed a year of military service and continued working in the school's studio. In 1903, he was commissioned to make a monument to the physician and general Carol Davila. He modeled the bust in plaster. It was cast in bronze and installed in front of the Military Hospital in Bucharest. The work retained the academic portrait style of his student years.

Later in 1903, he left Bucharest for Western Europe. He walked much of the journey and worked along the way to support himself. He passed through Vienna, Munich, and Basel, where he stayed for a time, and arrived in Paris on July 14, 1904.

Study in Paris and break with Rodin

During his first months in Paris, Brâncuși worked as a dishwasher at the Brasserie Chartier. When money was scarce, he assisted at services in the Romanian Orthodox church on rue Jean-de-Beauvais. In June 1905, he passed the entrance examination for the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied in the sculpture class of Antonin Mercié. He received an annual scholarship from the Romanian Ministry of Education from 1905 to 1908.

In 1906, he exhibited for the first time at the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and at the Salon d'Automne. His works included the plaster sculptures L'Enfant and L'Orgueil. At the following salon of the Société Nationale, he exhibited Le Supplice, a portrait of Nicolae Dărăscu, and two heads of children.

In March 1907, Brâncuși began working as an assistant to Auguste Rodin. He remained in Rodin's studio for only a few weeks. He preferred to find his own path and summed up the decision with the words, "Nothing grows in the shade of large trees."

Soon afterward, he received a commission for a funerary monument to Petre Stănescu at Dumbrava Cemetery in Buzău. The design joined a bust of Stănescu with the kneeling figure The Prayer. The size of the sculptures required a ground-floor workspace. In March 1908, Brâncuși rented a studio at 54 rue du Montparnasse, near the painter and photographer Edward Steichen. He remained there until 1916.

Between 1908 and 1910, Baroness Renée Frachon posed for Brâncuși. The sittings led to La Baronne R.F. and the first forms of Sleeping Muse. He reduced the face to a few lines on a reclining, ovoid head.

Brâncuși also moved away from modeling works in clay or plaster for casting. He began carving stone and wood directly, although he continued to make plaster and bronze versions. The methods he had learned in Romania remained present in his handling of tools and his sustained contact with the material.

Studios, friendships, and portraits

From 1908, Brâncuși spent time with artists and writers working in Paris, including Amedeo Modigliani, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Rousseau, Guillaume Apollinaire, Alexander Archipenko, and Henri Matisse. He met Modigliani in 1909 through the collector Paul Alexandre. The Italian artist drew his portrait in black and red pencil that year.

He remained in contact with Romanian artists, musicians, and writers living in France, among them George Enescu, Theodor Pallady, Camil Ressu, Nicolae Dărăscu, Benjamin Fondane, Panait Istrati, Traian Vuia, Eugène Ionesco, and Emil Cioran. He spoke Romanian in his studio, welcomed visitors from Romania, and followed news from the country.

In 1910, he met the Hungarian painter Margit Pogány, who was studying in Paris. She sat for him in 1910 and 1911. After she returned to Hungary, Brâncuși carved the first marble version of Mademoiselle Pogany from memory, completing it in 1912. They remained friends and corresponded for decades.

A version of The Kiss, carved in 1909, was installed in 1911 on the grave of Tatiana Rachewskaia at Montparnasse Cemetery.

In May 1912, Brâncuși rented a second studio at 47 rue du Montparnasse, across from the first. That fall, he visited an aviation exhibition at the Grand Palais with Duchamp and Léger. The three stopped before an airplane propeller. Its mechanical precision led them into a conversation about machine-made forms and the direction sculpture might take.

Brâncuși attended dinners centered on Apollinaire and meetings of artists in the Puteaux Group. He also went to gatherings led by the poet Paul Fort at the Closerie des Lilas, where he met Léger, Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, and other musicians and writers.

Armory Show and 291

In December 1912, Arthur Bowen Davies, Walt Kuhn, and Walter Pach visited Paris in search of works for the Armory Show. The exhibition catalog listed five sculptures by Brâncuși: The Kiss, Sleeping Muse, A Muse, Mademoiselle Pogany, and Torso.

The exhibition opened in New York on February 17, 1913, traveled to Chicago, and ended in Boston. Brâncuși's compact forms provoked laughter, caricatures, and arguments in the press. Commentators who did not recognize Mademoiselle Pogany as a conventional portrait compared it to an egg.

Edward Steichen selected the works for Brâncuși's first solo exhibition in the United States. Titled An Exhibition of Original Sculpture, in Bronze, Marble, and Wood, by Constantin Brancusi, of Paris, it brought eight sculptures to 291, the gallery operated by Alfred Stieglitz, from March 12 to April 4, 1914. The works included Măiastra and Mademoiselle Pogany. Agnes and Eugene Meyer paid for their transportation and began buying works directly from Brâncuși.

The lawyer and collector John Quinn, a supporter of the Armory Show, bought works from Brâncuși and remained in contact with him until his death in 1924. In 1914, he acquired a version of Mademoiselle Pogany from 291.

World War I and Impasse Ronsin

Brâncuși remained in Paris after the outbreak of World War I. In 1915, he donated works to an exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune that raised money for Polish artists affected by the war. As a Romanian citizen, he remained liable for military service. He refused to serve in 1916 and received a permanent exemption on November 8, 1917.

In early 1916, he moved into number 8 Impasse Ronsin. He later occupied number 11. He joined two studios and then three by cutting openings through the walls. In 1936 and 1941, he added rooms for unfinished works, his workbench, and his tools.

In 1916, the Modern Gallery, founded by Marius de Zayas, bought Le Nouveau-Né I. The sale widened the group of American collectors following his work. Brâncuși also began photographing his sculptures and testing different arrangements for them inside the studio.

Dada, photography, and publications

In January 1920, the organizers of the Salon des Indépendants excluded Princess X because they regarded its shape as phallic. Fernand Léger and other friends of Brâncuși protested, and the sculpture was returned to the exhibition. The dispute led to the manifesto Pour l'indépendance de l'art, signed by more than seventy artists and writers.

Brâncuși was friends with Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, and Duchamp, but he did not join the Dada movement. He attended its readings and performances. On May 26, 1920, he took part in the Dada festival in Paris and signed the manifesto Contre cubisme, contre dadaïsme with Léger.

Brâncuși had photographed his work since the 1910s. In 1921, he met Man Ray, who helped him buy equipment, set up a darkroom, and improve his developing methods. Brâncuși photographed the sculptures under changing light, altered his framing, and documented the relationships between the works and the surrounding space. He also filmed his studio and sculptures mounted on rotating bases.

In September 1921, the American magazine The Little Review published an issue devoted to Brâncuși. It contained an essay by Ezra Pound and 24 photographic plates showing sculptures and views of the studio.

In 1923, Brâncuși received the Order of the Star of Romania from King Ferdinand I.

In 1925, the Paris magazine This Quarter published photographs, drawings, and aphorisms by Brâncuși. Irène Codreanu selected the images.

In December 1927, De Stijl published photographs of Princess X, Sculpture for the Blind, and other works by Brâncuși.

New York, collectors, and collaborators

In October 1923, John Quinn spent about two weeks in Paris and visited Brâncuși. After Quinn's death, Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché bought 29 sculptures from his estate at Brâncuși's request. The sculptor feared that selling all the works at once would lower their prices. Duchamp and Roché offered them gradually to other collectors.

Brâncuși returned to the United States in 1926. The Wildenstein Gallery presented his work in a group exhibition and then in a solo exhibition from February 16 to March 3. Another exhibition opened at the Brummer Gallery on November 17 and remained on view until December 15.

During the trip, a bronze version of Bird in Space was detained by United States customs officials. They classified it as an article of metal and imposed the tariff applied to manufactured objects. The case Brancusi v. United States ended in 1928 with the sculpture being accepted as a work of art.

In 1927, the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi worked as an assistant in Brâncuși's studio. He sawed and polished pieces, prepared the studio, and kept the tools sharp. The experience brought him closer to direct carving in stone and wood.

In 1929, Harry and Caresse Crosby commissioned portraits of James Joyce from Brâncuși for the limited edition of Tales Told of Shem and Shaun, published by the Black Sun Press. Brâncuși made profile and frontal drawings and a composition formed from a spiral and vertical lines. Caresse selected the abstract composition for the frontispiece. The book called it "Portrait of the Author", while Brâncuși used the title "Symbol of James Joyce".

In 1931, Brâncuși met the New Zealand pianist Vera Moore through the collector and curator Jim Ede. They began a relationship, and John Moore was born in 1934. Brâncuși did not legally acknowledge him as his son.

Studio, music, and reading

Brâncuși dressed simply and furnished his studio with pieces he made himself. A large stone slab served as a table, and the fireplace recalled rural houses in Oltenia. He also made benches, cabinets, doors, and utensils. He cooked his own food and served Romanian dishes to friends.

Brâncuși brought the conception of a work, decisions made in the studio, and physical labor together in a single formula:

"To make art free and universal, you must create like a god, command like a king, and execute like a slave."
Ca arta să fie liberă și universală, trebuie să creezi ca un zeu, să comanzi ca un rege și să execuți ca un sclav.

Music was part of his routine. He played the violin, sang Romanian songs, and built his own phonograph.

His friendship with Erik Satie drew them to the subject of Socrates. Satie had composed the symphonic drama Socrate. Brâncuși gave the same name to a wooden sculpture completed in 1922.

Brâncuși read Plato, Laozi, and works about the Tibetan poet and teacher Milarepa. He kept a copy of Le poète tibétain Milarépa: ses crimes, ses épreuves, son Nirvana, translated into French by Jacques Bacot, near his bed. He compared Milarepa's life in the mountains with his own origins in the Carpathian Mountains.

After settling in Paris, he returned to Romania eight times but never again lived there.

Târgu Jiu and the Indore project

Arethia Tătărescu, president of the National League of Women of Gorj, invited Brâncuși to create a monument to the Romanians killed while defending Târgu Jiu in 1916. He visited the site in June 1937. The first plan called for a tall metal column, a subject he had worked on for nearly two decades. Brâncuși expanded the project and set the works along an axis of about 1.5 km (0.93 mi).

Near the Jiu River, he installed the Table of Silence, the Avenue of Chairs, and the Gate of the Kiss. The Endless Column was raised on a hill at the eastern end of the route. The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which already stood along the path, was incorporated into the axis. Engineer Ștefan Georgescu-Gorjan worked with Brâncuși on the technical construction of the column. The sculptor supervised the installation of the works in 1937 and 1938. The ensemble was inaugurated in October 1938.

During the same period, Yashwant Rao Holkar II, the Maharaja of Indore, asked Brâncuși to design a temple in memory of his first wife. The interior was to contain three versions of Bird in Space, one in bronze, one in black marble, and one in white marble.

Brâncuși traveled to India in early 1938. He passed through Bombay and continued to Indore, where he stayed at the maharaja's palace. He examined the sculptures Holkar had already purchased and studied the proposed site of the temple. The project was never built. On the return journey, he passed through Suez and Cairo, where he visited museums, the Great Sphinx of Giza, and the Giza pyramid complex.

In April 1939, he traveled to New York again. He took part in Art in Our Time, an exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art for its tenth anniversary. A version of Le Miracle, also called Le Phoque, was exhibited on a motorized base that slowly rotated the sculpture.

World War II and final years

Brâncuși remained in Paris during World War II and lived quietly through the years of German occupation. He continued working at Impasse Ronsin. In 1943, he completed La Tortue and a new version of Le Phoque. He set the works on circular bases that allowed their orientation to be changed.

The Romanian painters Natalia Dumitresco and Alexandre Istrati arrived in Paris in 1947 with scholarships from the French government. They met Brâncuși soon afterward and began helping him in the studio. They cared for the works and tools and performed tasks that he was finding increasingly difficult. Brâncuși named them as the heirs to his estate.

In 1950, Walter and Louise Arensberg donated their collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It contained nineteen works by Brâncuși, ten of which had come from John Quinn's estate.

On June 13, 1952, Brâncuși received French citizenship, for which he had applied the previous year.

In January 1955, he fractured the neck of his femur in a fall. He left the hospital in May but walked with difficulty and suffered further falls. In October, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened the first retrospective of his work in New York. The exhibition later traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

As his health declined, Brâncuși stopped making new sculptures and concentrated on arranging the works in his studio. When he sold a work, he placed a plaster version in the same position to retain the composition. In 1956, he bequeathed to the French state the sculptures, bases, sketches, photographs, films, furniture, tools, books, and records that remained there. He required the studio to be reconstructed in the arrangement it had at the time of his death.

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