Constantin Brancusi

1876–1957

Constantin Brancusi, ‘Danaïde’ c.1918
Danaïde c.1918
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019
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In Tate Modern

Media Networks: Modern Times

Free entry
In Tate St Ives

Modern Art and St Ives: Paris, London and St Ives 1920–1940

Biography

Constantin Brâncuși (Romanian: [konstanˈtin brɨŋˈkuʃʲ] (listen); February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered a pioneer of modernism, one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Brâncuși sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.

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Direct carving

Artworks

Constantin Brancusi, ‘Danaïde’ c.1918

Constantin Brancusi Danaïde

c.1918
T00296
Constantin Brancusi, ‘Maiastra’ 1911

Constantin Brancusi Maiastra

1911
On display at Tate Modern part of Media Networks T01751
Constantin Brancusi, ‘Fish’ 1926

Constantin Brancusi Fish

1926
T07107
Constantin Brancusi, ‘Head’ c.1919–23

Constantin Brancusi Head

c.1919–23
On display at Tate St Ives part of Modern Art and St Ives T03066

Features

Constantin Brancusi, ‘Head’ c.1919–23
Art Term

Direct carving

Direct carving is an approach to making carved sculpture where the actual process of carving suggests the final form rather ...

Louis Anquetin, ‘Girl Reading a Newspaper’ 1890
Art Term

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts is a French term meaning school of fine arts

Sir Jacob Epstein, ‘Portrait of Iris Beerbohm Tree’ 1915
Art Term

Patina

The word patina usually refers to a distinct green or brown surface layer on bronze sculpture

Amedeo Modigliani, ‘Portrait of a Girl’ c.1917
Art Term

School of Paris

In the early years of the twentieth century, Paris became a magnet for artists from all over the world and ...

Boetti with Manifesto 1967 in 1970
Tate Etc

Giving time to time: Alighiero Boetti at Tate Modern I

Mark Godfrey

One of the most important and influential Italian artists of the twentieth century, Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994) is renowned for ...

Walter de Maria The Broken Kilometer 1979
Tate Etc

Thirty years of eternity: Walter de Maria

Thomas Kellein

Broken Kilometer, as Kellein writes, surpasses many other great works: "Even Barnett Newman's 'zip' paintings, Dan Flavin's fluorescent ...

Olga Picabia Francis Picabia on his bicycle with his dog Ninie
Tate Etc

The unholy trinity: Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia

Bernard Marcadé

To coincide with the first exhibition to explore the inter-relationship between Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia, to be staged at ...

Unknown artist, Britain, ‘The Cholmondeley Ladies’ c.1600–10
Tate Etc

The perception of symmetry

Michael Bird

Michael Bird on notions of how symmetry, the Doppelgänger, duality and mirror images have played a part in the way ...

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