Constantin Brâncusi

Constantin Brancusi, is a famous Romanian sculptor (b. 1876 Hobita-Pestisani, Gorj, Romania - d. 1957 Paris, France), one of the first great creators in the modern art. In 1894 he entered the Craftsmanships School in Craiova, to go then to the National Fine Arts School in Bucharest (1898-1902), where, for a short while, he studied with Professor Ion Georgescu and then with Vladimir C. Hegel. While a student, he sculpted the bust of Gheorghe Chitu, and a Head of expression and made several reproductions: the Ecorche (together with Dr. Gerota), Vitellius, Laocoons head. In 1902 he sculpted Georgescu-Gorjans bust, and one year later he realised General Dr. Carol Davilas bust, which, in 1912, was to be located in the courtyard of the Bucharest Armys Hospital. In 1904, after going through Budapest, Vienna, Munich (to stay there for a while), and Switzerland, he would eventually arrive in Paris. In France, thanks to a grant received in 1905, he was able to enrol at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Antonin Mercies class. In 1907 he was admitted for practicing at Rodins studio. It would not be for long because, out of too much pride and self-confidence, he would leave Rodins studio, to say of his master that he was a tree in the shadow of which no grass would grow. It was then that Brancusi carved Nicolae Darascus portrait, Head of A Boy, Agony (1906), and the Prayer and Petre Stanescus portrait, these latter being ordered as a tombstone at Buzau (1907). From that time on he would be almost certain of what he was going to do. A delicate shaping, reacting to light, takes him away from the Impressionism -like effects (Rodin) to standing, in the context of just manifesting rationalistic trends such as Cubism, the trial of finding the essential, the non-perishable, the moment escapable elements. Creations such as Cumintenia pamantului/The Wisdom of the Earth, a first version of the Kiss (1907), Somnul/The Sleep (1908), Muza adormita/The Sleeping Muse (1909-1910), Pasarea maiastra (1910), Prometeu/Prometheus (1911), Domnisoara Pogany/Miss Pogany (the 1912-1933 series), Primul pas/The First Step (1913) point to his preferences for archaic art values, for the Black and Maori tribes art. It was about this time that he made friends with Amedeo Modigliani. Painter Henri Rousseau, one of his friends, prophesied when telling to Brancusi: . You made the ancient be modern. His fame spread and success waited for him in New York. He travelled to the USA in 1913 for participating in the International Exhibition of Modern Art (see the Armory Show). Thanks to Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, he would be able to open at Photo Secession Gallery his first personal exhibition. He would join the group exhibitions organized by the Artistic Youth, the Romanian Art, Contimporanul, etc. Young artists would visit his Paris studio and work there: Irina Codreanu, Milita Petrascu, Constantin Antonovici, Isamu Noguchi, George Teodorescu. Brancusi was in search ...