One of the pioneer sculptors and avant-garde artists of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși is celebrated for his singular ability to capture the essence of forms through simplification and abstraction. His work has had a profound impact on modernism, Minimalism and conceptualism, inspiring sculptural giants who followed him including Isamu Noguchi and Richard Serra and continuing to inspire artists today.
Brâncuși was born in 1876 in the small village of Hobița, Romania. He attended the Scoala de Meserii (School of Arts and Crafts) in Craiova and the Scoala Natzionala de Arte Frumoase (National School of Fine Arts) in Bucharest, before moving to Paris in 1904. It was in the cultural capital that Brâncuși’s artistic career flourished. He studied in the École des Beaux-Arts a year after his arrival and did a brief stint at the studio of Auguste Rodin in 1907. Brâncuși left the atelier soon after, with a desire to break away from the conventional mode of sculpture.
Thus began Brâncuși’s quest to create sculptures that focused on the purity of form, eschewing details in favour of abstracted shapes. Many regarded this as the beginning of Brâncuși’s maturity as an artist. He worked directly with the material, sculpting and carving without having a model cast or made by others. Brâncuși became enmeshed in the avant-garde movement, prevalent in Paris at the time and befriended contemporaries such as Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Rousseau.
In 1923 Brâncuși created Bird in Space, the first sculpture that would become his most well-known series of sculptures. These highly polished, elongated forms, depicting the graceful essence of flight, have become iconic representations of modernist sculpture. Brâncuși’s other significant works include a sculptural ensemble, comprising of The Table of Silence, The Gate of Kiss and Endless Column, created in 1935 as part of a war memorial in Târgu Jiu, Romania.
Brâncuși exhibited widely during his lifetime. His first solo exhibition was presented by Alfred Stieglitz at his New York gallery 291 in 1914. In 1955 the first retrospective of his work was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and travelled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Constantin Brâncuși died in 1957 at the age of 81.
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard)
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
La muse endormie
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Madame L.R. (Portrait de M m e L.R.)
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Le premier cri
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Une muse
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
La muse endormie I
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Le Baiser
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Etude de Mlle Pogany
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Profil de femme au chignon (Princesse Marie Bonaparte)
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Sans titre (Femme nue assise)
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
Profil de femme au chignon
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Nu assis de profil
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Atelier
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Etude de femme
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Le Coq, La Muse Endormie, 1924
Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
L'Atelier, c. 1927
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957)
Tête de femme
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Sleeping Muse, vers 1910
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI (1876–1957)
Plato, 1919
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1956)
Mademoiselle Pogany
Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
(bois) Mme. L.R., 1914
Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Mademoiselle Pogany II, 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Two Sculptures: 'Le Nouveau Né II', 1920 and 'L'Enfant Dormant', 1906, 1923
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI (1876–1957)
Princesse X, 1916
Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Self-Portrait in his Studio, c. 1922
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Melle Pogany II, vue de trois-quarts, bronze poli, vers 1920
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1954)
La Négresse blanche de trois-quart vue de nuit, marbre veiné, 1923
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Vue d’Atelier (La Tortue volante, les Coqs, le Roi des Rois, l’Oiseau dans l’espace, le Baiser, le Nouveau-Né), c. 1945
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI (1876–1957)
Léda, 1920–1921
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Melle Pogany II, vue de trois-quarts, marbre veiné, vers 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Léda, bronze poli, vers 1926
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
Vue d'atelier, c. 1925
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Vue d'atelier avec Eve et Nouvé Né, vers 1919
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
La muse endormie II, albâtre, vers 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Vue d'atelier, vers 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Léda, vers 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Léda, 1924
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUSI (1876–1957)
Vue de l'atelier, c. 1924-1925
Constantin Brâncuși (1876–1957)
Golden Bird, c. 1920
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Le Chef, vers 1925
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Sans titre (Deux enfants)
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876 -1957)
La Négresse blanche de trois-quart vue de nuit, 1923
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
Mademoiselle Pogany II
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
L'Oiseau dans l'espace, marbre blanc, vers 1925
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
La Timidité, 1917
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876-1957)
Lizica Codréano interprétant les Gymnopédies d'Erik Satie dans l'atelier de Brancusi, 1922
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1867-1957)
Vue d'atelier, vers 1925