Brancusi: Master of Reductive Art
“Work like a slave; command like a king; create like a god”
is what Constantin Brancusi once said. The exhibition ‘Brancusi. Sublimation of Form’, which is currently running at the BOZAR in Brussels as the flagship event for Europalia Romania, shows that Brancusi was true to his own word. Walking through this amazing retrospective it becomes apparent that he lived his life according to these principles.
Brancusi was born into a peasant family in Romania in 1876, a heritage he never fully left behind. Until the end of his life he would dress in the fashion of his countrymen and serve his guests the food of his homeland. In his quest for a career in the arts, he made his way to France – claiming he did it entirely on foot. Thus he was laying the foundation for his reputation as a legend which he cultivated all his life. In 1905 he started his studies at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris, eventually becoming one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a pioneer of Modernism, both in Europe and the United States.
As the most famous Romanian export to the art world, it was only logical that the man and his oeuvre were to be the highlight of Romania’s tenure as the guest country of Europalia, a multidisciplinary international arts festival. Since its inception in 1969, Europalia has been addressing its audience with varied events, focusing on both the cultural heritage as well as the contemporary art scene of the celebrated nation.
Brancusi, who, as the exhibition catalogue tells us, has throughout his career remained a “symbol of Romanian artistic creativity” is difficult to classify as an artist. He broke free from the influences of anything that came before him, developing his own trademark philosophy of creating and presenting.
His artistic genius emerged early on, after just one year at the Académie, when in 1906 his work caught the eye of Auguste Rodin at the autumn salon in Paris. In fact, he proceeded to start studying at Rodin’s studio but left very quickly, proclaiming that “..nothing grows in the shade of tall trees”.
The ensuing break from the academic approach to sculpting sent Brancusi on his way to what was to become a revolutionary new method: he developed a technique of direct carving without using casts. In 1907 he created three pieces, one of them his famous stone sculpture ‘The Kiss’, that marked this pivotal moment in his artistic development. At the same time he also looked for inspiration further afield, in the folklore of his home country and in artefacts from what were then considered ‘primitive’ cultures.
Eventually, he also abandoned the systematic use of a life model. Brancusi’s art did not represent people. It expressed a notion, a feeling, a concept even. His sculpture ‘The Newborn’, for example, is about the miracle of life, not the child it depicts. Indeed, following his artistic progression, the head of a child eventually becomes a perfect oval shape – represented as a polished marble egg on a nickel-silver disk balancing on a stone plinth, with the title ‘Beginning of the World’. His famous piece ‘Sleeping Muse’ in polished bronze, is an affirmation of harmony and beauty in the female portrait, yet has no resemblance to its model, the Baroness Frachon.
By bringing together these pieces as well as many others from various collections, the curator of the exhibition makes it possible for the visitor to follow Brancusi’s development throughout his long career. A career that was not without controversy and scandal. When he brought his artworks to America in 1927 for his first exhibition there, customs officials refused to accept them as art and demanded he pay duty on the ‘importation of metal’. It took a 2-year court battle and the testimony of countless artists to establish that his sculpture ‘Bird in Flight’ was indeed an artistic representation of a bird and not “meaningless junk”. Another one of his sculptures, the now lost ‘Princess X’, a woman’s bust devoid of all detail, was removed from the Salon des Independents in 1920 for looking too much like a representation of male genitalia.
However, it was this ability of reducing the human body to its fundamental form that makes Brancusi such a ground-breaking artist. Here in this show, his sculptures are juxtaposed with the works of his teachers, students and contemporaries, to put them into context. For example, there are works by Rodin who was always true to naturalistic representation; drawings by Modigliani who had tried his hand as a sculptor under the tutelage of Brancusi, paintings by his friend Leger and the sculptures of his student Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi had happily embraced the style of his teacher, including the practice to leave marks of the tools on sculptures, to symbolize the connection of the artist with his material.
Materials were of great importance to Brancusi. He used the characteristics of marble, plaster, bronze and wood to bring out the essence of whatever object he was sculpting. His aim was always to reveal the truth of things. That was also why he wanted his works to be photographed. Photography was for him the perfect medium to demonstrate even clearer the thinking behind his works.
Since he was unhappy with the photographs that others took of his work, Brancusi started taking photos himself. Like that he was able to create a total work of art in his own aesthetic vision – a kind of autobiography - consisting of sculptures, sketches, photographic and filmed documentation.
As this exhibition clearly shows, Brancusi’s photographs are as impressive as his sculptures. He was a master of photographic composition; staging sets in his studio, depicting not only himself and his works, but also his handmade furniture, tools, and his beloved dog Polaire. His photographic language encompasses the use of reflections, shadows, and intense as well as night lighting.
Apart from photography he also used film to add the extra dimension of movement to his works. The pieces ‘Fish’ and ‘Leda’ for example, were realized in polished bronze and then filmed while rotating on circular bases. This makes for spectacular exhibition installations, with the videos projected onto the wall, behind the sculptures on their plinths.
The exhibition contains other compelling footage as well: Brancusi carving directly into huge blocks of stone or hosting social gatherings with his many artist friends. There is Man Ray, who taught him how to use a camera; and many others like Duchamp, Leger, Louise Bourgeois, as well as a group of Romanian artists. One beautiful film of dancers moving animatedly through his studio filled with his sculptures, documents how important it was for him not to see his works as static pieces but imbue them with dynamism by whatever means possible.
An ingenious way to bring Brancusi’s love for animation and movement into a contemporary context here at BOZAR was the inclusion of a dance project. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker choreographed performances for solo dancers right in the middle of the exhibition halls. Reflected in the flawless burnished surfaces of Brancusi’s timeless pieces with their elegant simple lines and curves, the contemporary dancers match his pursuit of ethereal qualities in art, by mirroring the movements of the shapes and forms of the masterpieces that surround them.
The exhibition is on at the BOZAR in Brussels until 2 February 2020.
If you would like to read more about Brancusi and his art follow this link.
For a better view and additional information in the captions please click through the pictures in the gallery below. All photos were taken by me at the exhibition.
