The legendary Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) was a central figure of the modern movement and a pioneer of abstraction.
As an art student he was influenced by Auguste Rodin, but his style moved beyond naturalist representation to stylized elegant forms. Brancusi was one of the first sculptors to experiment with abstract art; his sculptures became progressively smoother and less figurative, until only the barest outline of the original subject was left. Brancusi's sculpture gained international notoriety at the 1913 Armory Show in New York, and his work would go on to profoundly influence the development of twentieth-century sculpture. In his Paris studio Brancusi devoted great attention to the arrangement of his sculptures, documenting individual works and their installation in an important body of photographs.
This catalogue, published in conjunction with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, examines Brancusi's fascinating photographic oeuvre from the Centre Pompidou Collection. These little known photographs offer a further dimension to the art of Brancusi by revealing his work through the lens of the artist himself.
