Constantin Brâncuși

February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957

Constantin Brâncuși was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

École des Beaux-Arts in Paris

His abstract style emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art.

Famous Brâncuși works include the Sleeping Muse (1908), The Kiss (1908), Prometheus (1911), Mademoiselle Pogany (1913), The Newborn (1915), Bird in Space (1919) and The Column of the Infinite, popularly known as The Endless Column (1938). Considered a pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture.

Bird in Space• Bird in Space (L'Oiseau dans

l'espace) is a series of sculptures. The original work was created in 1923. It was sold in 2005 for $27.5 million, at the time a record price for a sculpture sold in an auction. The original title in Romanian is "Pasărea în văzduh. Seven of the sculptures in the series are made of marble, while the other nine were cast in bronze.

Bird in Space In the Bird in Space

works, Brâncuși concentrated not on the physical attributes of the bird, but instead on its movement. The bird's wings and feathers are eliminated, the swell of the body is elongated, and the head and beak are reduced to a slanted oval plane

In 1926-27, Bird in Space was the subject of a court battle over its taxation by U.S. Customs. In October 1926, Bird in Space, along with 19 other Brâncuși sculptures, arrived in New York harbor aboard the steamship Paris.[ While works of art are not subject to custom duties, the customs officials refused to believe that the tall, thin piece of polished bronze was art and so imposed the tariff for manufactured metal objects, 40% of the sale price or about $230 (over $2800 in 2010 U.S. dollars). Marcel Duchamp (who accompanied the sculptures from Europe), American photographer Edward Steichen (who was to take possession of Bird in Space after exhibition), and Brâncuși himself were indignant; the sculptures were set to appear at the Brummer Gallery in New York City and then the Club Arts in Chicago.

Stages of Abstraction

Sleeping Muse (1908)

Constantin Brancusi: The Kiss1908Limestone, 23"Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louis and Walter Arensberg Collection

Constantin Brancusi: Prometheus1911Marble, 5 x 7"Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louis and Walter Arensberg Collection

The Column of the Infinite 1938

In 2002, a sculpture by Brâncuși named Danaide was sold for $18.1 million, the highest that a sculpture piece had ever sold for at auction.

May 2005, a piece from the Bird in Space series broke that record, selling for $27.5 million in a Christie’s auction.

In the Yves Saint Laurent Bergé sale on February 23, 2009, another sculpture of Brâncuși, Madame L.R., was sold for $37.2 million, setting a new historical record.

Constantin Brâncuși He died on March 16, 1957 at the

age of 81 leaving 1200 photographs and 215 sculptures. He was buried in the Cimetière Du Montparnasse in Paris. Also located in that cemetery are statues carved by Brâncuși for several fellow artists who died; the best-known of these is "Le Baiser" ("The Kiss").

His works are housed in the Museum of Modern Art of New York, the National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., as well as in other major museums around the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art currently has the largest collection of Brâncuși sculptures in the United States.