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Constantin Brancusi | 
 enlarge | Authors: Friedrich Teja Bach, Margit Rowell, Ann Temkin
Creators: Philadelphia Museum Of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou
Publisher: Mit Pr
Category: Book
Buy Used: $153.59
Used (9) from $153.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 762956
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 406
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.6
Dimensions (in): 12 x 9.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0262023954
Dewey Decimal Number: 730.92
EAN: 9780262023955
ASIN: 0262023954
Publication Date: October 25, 1995
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Book Description
In twentieth-century sculpture, one name towers above all others: Romanian-born Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). This book accompanies a major retrospective exhibition of Brancusi's sculpture, drawings, and photographs, organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Profusely illustrated throughout, with photographs by the artist and images culled from a wide range of archival sources, it is the most definitive work yet published on this influential artist. The authors provide a detailed reassessment of Brancusi's work, incorporating and extending the profound revisions in scholarship that have been taking place since the last major retrospective in 1969-1970. The three major essays present new information on such diverse issues as the sculptor's sources of inspiration, his formal approach, and the works' original presentation. Friedrich Teja Bach rejects the notion of Brancusi's oeuvre as hermetic, timeless, and pure, and examines instead the heterogeneous combinations of form and material that make Brancusi's works compellingly paradoxical. Margit Rowell explores the sculptor's place in the artistic climate of Paris in the 1910s and 1920s and his rejection of dominant styles and subject matter in favor of non-Western sources, particularly Asian art. Ann Temkin traces the history of Brancusi's American patronage during his lifetime by such influential collectors as John Quinn, Katherine Dreier, James Johnson Sweeney, and Louise and Walter Arensberg. The plate section features full-color reproductions of over 100 sculptures, with accompanying texts and visual references. In addition, 55 photographs by Brancusi in full-page duotone are shown for the first time alongside a major selection of his sculptures. There are also color and black and white reproductions of over forty of his drawings -- the richest documentation to date of this aspect of Brancusi's work -- as well as prefatory essays on the photographs and drawings, a chronology, and bibliographic and exhibition listings. Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Ethereal sculpture... July 14, 2001
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
In the Sucevita Cloisters in Sucevita Romania a painted vault depicts a repeated rhomboid design in the shape of a pillar. Wooden funery columns in Loman Cemetery in Hunedoara, Transylvania, Romania also exhibit the rhomboidal design, albeit on a much more articulated, differentiated, and elaborate scale.The Romanina artist, Constantin Brancusi brought the image of the rhomboid pillar to his wonderful sculpture the "Endless Column." For Brancusi, the rhomboid pillar was the embodiment of the "axis mundi", the world's axis, the tree of life, the pillar of the sky, the pivot of the universe. He once referred to these columns as stairways to heaven. Peoples all over the world have used the metaphysical pillar to link the earth and the sun, the source of all life. The pillar image may not seem as fresh today as it did when arrived on the Paris art scene in the early 20th Century, but today, many art critics view the Romanian-born Parisian sculptor Brancusi as a major player in the Modern art movement. Along with Picasso, Brancusi introduced the notion of using traditional art forms in Western art--including 'totem' poles or sacred pillars, stone plinths, and other metaphysical carvings. BRANCUSI was published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with a major retrospective of his work. Brancusi apparently deplored analytic attempts to understand his art (he felt his works should simply be "enjoyed" i.e. the fill the viewer with joy). However, the book is filled with material designed to help the reader "understand" and to a great extent, I feel it accomplishes it's goal. The layout includes photographs showing how Brancusi may have found inspiration for his many birds, heads, and other organic and metaphysical works, including his rhomboidal columns. For example, one series of photographs shows Brancusi's famous "Muse" series executed in marble, bronze, and other media, and includes possible sources of inspiration such as a photograph and self-portrait of Margit Pogany. The various "Muse" may have evolved from a semi-formal bust similar to those executed by more traditional artists to a fully evolved "essence" of "head" more akin to Modern art. I recommend this book to anyone who desires a pictoral record of the artist at work as well as many flat representations of his wonderfully formed three-dimensional sculptures and carvings.
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