Abstract Representations: Constantine Br

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Abstract RepresentationsConstantine Brâncusi
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Enduring Understanding
Students will understand that how abstract art
brought about new energies and dimensions in
artistic creation.
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Essential Questions

• Overarching
• How has abstraction affected our way of viewing
  art?
• What can abstraction achieve that realistic art
  cannot?
• Topical
• What is the essence of life?
• How does one express the essence of life?

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5W1H
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Bio-Data

• 1976 Born in Hobia, Romania.
• 1884 Entered School of Arts and Crafts in
  Craiova.
• 1903 Went to Paris.
• 1907 Spent one month as an apprentice to Rodin.
• 1909 Saw Matisse and Apollinaires works.
• Inspired by tribal masks and sculptures.
• 1910 First version of Maiastra.
• 1926 Bird in Space
• 1937 Went to India.
• 1952 Became a French citizen.

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When (1876- 1957)

• 1905 The emergence of Fauvism.
• 1906 Retrospective exhibition of Gauguins
  work.
• 1914 World War I
• 1939 World War II started in Europe.
• 1947 The Communists took over and remained
  under the control of USSR.

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Where (1876-1957 specific to place)

• Romania
• Romania declared neutrality during WW1 but was
  subsequently pressured to join the allies.
• Romania was drawn into the Axis Power
• (Germany, Italy and Japan), failing to stay
  neutral this time round.
• She changed sides later and joined The Allies.

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Where (1876-1957 specific to place)

• Paris
• The center of arts in Europe.
• Emergence of various art movements.
• Eg- The Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and
  the Fauvists.

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Which

• Abstraction
• Brancusi was the first of the modern sculptors.
• Image which departs from representational
  accuracy.
• The abstraction is carried out to a variable
  range of degrees.
• In the case of Brancusi, he selects and
  simplifies the form.

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What

• Subject Matter
• Folklore
• Theme
• Essence

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Why

• Background
• His apprenticeship to Auguste Rodin.

The Kiss by Brancusi 1908. Wood, wax and metal
The Kiss/Le Baiser by Auguste Rodin , 1901-4.
Pentelican Marble, 18.2 x 12.1 x 15.3 cm Bequest
of Florene M. Schoenborn
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Why

• Background
• He was a complex and rather mysterious man.
• His interests ranged from Science to Music.
• He had an intense love for craftsmanship - a
  talented handyman who made his furniture and
  utensils.
• He grew up in a village well-known for its
  folk-crafts and ornate wood-carvings.
• His other influences- African and Oriental art.

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Why

• Brancusi rejected Rodins 19th-century emphasis
  on theatricality and accumulation of detail in
  favour of radical simplification and
  abbreviation.
• He suppressed all decoration and explicit
  narrative referents in an effort to create pure
  and resonant forms.
• His goal was to capture the essence of his
  subjects, which included birds in flight, fish,
  penguins, and a kissing couple and render them
  visible with minimal formal means.

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Why

• Philosophy
• To differentiate the essential from the ephemeral
  (the transience and short-living).
• His values taken from the writings of Plato
  (Greek), Lao Tze (Chinese) and Jetsun Milarepa
  (Tibetan).
• He was an idealist, almost ascetic in his
  approach to life.
• His workshop reeked with spiritual atmosphere.
• In contradiction, during the 1910s and 1920s, he
  turned to pleasure seeking and merry-making
  within his Bohemian circle.

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How

• Direct carving instead of casting.
• Carving- the sculptor works directly on the
  medium, eg stone.
• Casting- the sculptor uses clay or plaster as a
  mould for the medium.
• From 1908 onwards, Brancusi worked primarily via
  carving, unlike his contemporaries who casted.
• He would simplify his forms into geometric or
  sparse objects.
• Providing bases for his sculptures is important.

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How

• The art of Brancusi encompassed the nature of
  materials in all its manifestations.
• He finished his bronzes and marbles to a degree
  of perfection rarely seen in the history of
  sculpture.
• At the same time, he placed these polished shapes
  on roughly carved stone pedestals, or on bases
  hacked out of tree trunks, in order to attain a
  mystical fusion of disembodied light-reflecting
  surfaces and solid, earthbound mass.

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2 Styles
(1) Carved and modelled exquisitely refined
forms - Embodiments of absolute
perfection. - Confront viewer with their
physically - provocative and magnetic
presences. - Meditative (2) A series of
rough, tough sculptures - Carved from old
pieces of wood. - Influenced by African
carvings. - Powerful Dramatic
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How

• His Materials-
• Brass
• Bronze
• Marble
• Metal
• Stone
• Wood

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The Prayer
The Prayer, 1907 Bronze on wood
This sculpture is his first step to abstraction.
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His Kisses
The Kiss, 1908 Alvastone with Aged Stone
Finish Philadelphia Museum of Art
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His Kisses
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
The Kiss, 1912 Limestone, 58.4 x 33.7 x 25.4
cm Philadelphia Museum of Art
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His Ovoids
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Head of Sleeping Child, 1908 Pompidou, Paris
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
The Newborn, 1920 Bronze, 14.6 x 21 x 14.6
cm Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
The Newborn, 1915. Marble, 8.5 x 6
inches Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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His Muses
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Sleeping Muse, 1910, Bronze Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York
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His Muses
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Sleeping Muse, 1909-10 Hirschhorn Museum
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His Muses
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Muse (La Muse), 1912. White marble, 17 3/4 x 9 x
6 3/4 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Princess X, 1915-16 Polished bronze, limestone
block 61.7 x 40.5 x 22.2 cm The Louise and
Walter Arensberg Collection
This phallic sculpture caused a stir at the Salon
(Société des Artistes Indépendants) and was
removed from the exhibition in 1920.
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (ii) Works in wood
The Sorceress, 1916-1924. Walnut on limestone
base, 44 7/8 x 19 x 25 1/4 inches Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum.
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (ii) Works in wood
Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve executed separately
ca. 1916. Chestnut (Adam) and oak (Eve), on
limestone base, 94 x 18 3/4 x 18 1/4 inches
overall. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (ii) Works in wood
Socrates. 1922. Oak (111 x 28.8 x 36.8 cm), on
oak footing (18.8 x 24.6 x 27 cm), overall 130 cm
high. Limestone cylinder, 30.2 cm high. Peggy
Guggenheim Collection
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (ii) Works in wood
The Cock, 1924. Cherry, 121 x 46.3 x 14.6
cm, Peggy Guggenheim Collection
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Bird Series
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Maiastra, 1912 . Polished brass, height 73.1 cm,
including base. Guggenheim Museum, New York
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Bird Series
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes

• Maiastra, 1912 .
• White marble (55.9 cm) high, on three-part
  limestone pedestal (177.8 cm) high, of which the
  middle section is Double Caryatid, c.1908
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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What- Maiastra

• In Romanian folklore, the Maiastra is a beautiful
  bird, golden in colour.
• It has powers that can predict the future and
  cure the blind.
• His Bird in Space series are based on the
  Maiastra

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Bird Series..
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Bird in Space, 1923. Marble, 144.1 x 16.5
cm Bequest of Florene M.Schoenborn
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Bird Series
Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Bird in Space (LOiseau dans lespace),1932 -
1940 Polished brass, Height, including base 151
cm Guggenheim Museum, New York
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Beginning of the World, 1920 Marble, metal and
stone, 76.2 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm. Dallas Museum of
Art, Texas
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Years of maturity, c 190734 (i) Direct carvings
and bronzes
Fish, 1930. Blue-gray marble (53.3 x 180.3 x 14
cm), on three-part pedestal of one marble (13 cm)
high, and two limestone cylinders (33 cm) high
and (27.9 cm) high x (81.5 cm) diameter at widest
point.
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Târgu Jiu
Table of Silence, 1937-38. Limestone, table,
215cm in diameter Târgu Jiu , Romania
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Târgu Jiu
Gate of Kiss, 1937-38. Stone, 514 x 545 cm Târgu
Jiu , Romania
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Târgu Jiu
Endless Column, 1937-38. Cast iron, 2933
cm. Târgu Jiu , Romania
After restoration at 2000.
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Târgu Jiu Endless Column
Detail of module showing disk removed for
testing.
Detail of restored module ready to be
repositioned.
Detail of surface damage.
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Târgu Jiu Endless Column
This sculpture, based on the symbolism of the
axis mundi, was made as a tribute to the young
Romanians who died in World War I fighting
Germany, and is a stylization of the funerary
pillars used in Southern Romania. The Endless
Column is 29.33 meters high and composed of 17
rhombus-shaped modules made out of cast iron.
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Târgu Jiu

• Târgu Jiu is the capital of Gorj County, Oltenia,
  Romania.
• Brancusis sculptures in Târgu Jiu constitutes of
  the Table of Silence, the Gate of Kiss and the
  Endless Column.
• This ensemble of works is a monument for WWI.
• It commemorates the courage of Romanian heroes
  who were sacrificed when fighting off German
  invasion in 1916.

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Endless Column
Plan of the monumental ensemble at Târgu Jiu
29.33 metres
Gate of Kiss
1.60 metres
Table of Silence
River Jiu
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Târgu Jiu
1. The Table of Silence represents the table
the Soldiers joined before facing the enemy. The
Chairs represent the time disposed like those
of sand glasses.
2. The Gate of Kiss is the gate to another
life. The motifs on the columns represent the
eyes.
3. The Endless Column is a monolithic spiritual
testament to their heroism, like a stairway to
heaven.
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References

• http//en.wikipedia.org
• http//www.moma.org/collection/
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXilZfSZFLbYfeature
  PlayListp3B97511D92ACF2B8index59