Constantin Brâncuși
The purifier of form.
Constantin Brâncuși reduced sculpture to pure, polished forms such as Bird in Space. He is one of the most important sculptors of modernism.
Constantin Brâncuși was born in 1876 in the village of Hobița in Romania into a peasant family. As a child he herded sheep and learned early to carve wood, a strong tradition in the area. He studied at a school of arts and crafts in Craiova and then at the academy of fine arts in Bucharest.
In 1904 he set out for Paris. He is said to have walked much of the way. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and in 1907 worked briefly as an assistant to Rodin. He soon left Rodin, reportedly declaring that nothing grows in the shadow of great trees.
Brâncuși broke with the modelled, realistic ideal. He began carving directly in stone and wood instead of modelling in clay. The Kiss of 1907–1908, in which two figures embrace within a single block, is an early example. Over time he simplified his forms more and more: heads became eggs, birds became gleaming, elongated lines. He worked in marble, wood and highly polished bronze.
His best-known motif is Bird in Space, which he made in many versions from 1923. When one of them was to be brought into the USA in 1926, customs wanted to tax it as an industrial object rather than as art. The ensuing court case ended in 1928 with the court ruling that it was a work of art, an important decision for the perception of modern art.
In Romania in 1937–1938 he created a monumental ensemble in Târgu Jiu in memory of those who fell in the First World War. It includes The Endless Column, almost thirty metres high. He died in 1957 in Paris and bequeathed his studio to the French state. It has been reconstructed at the Centre Pompidou. Brâncuși is regarded as one of the most important sculptors of modernism.