On March 16, 2024, we commemorated the 67th anniversary of Brancusi’s death.
In Romania a relatively small number of Brâncuș’s works are preserved, for known historical reasons, summarized in this quote from Ilarie Voronca:
“And suddenly I had the revelation of the creator’s solitude.
He who with his own hands made the world, was grieved to see that it was ungrateful and haughty, turning away from him and forgetting him. But just like any great artist, the creator continues his fantastic labor, without respite and never satisfied. My soul was filled with awe for the divine builder” ;
From an exegetical point of view, Brâncuș’s creation has known an extraordinary discrepancy of opinions.
Brancusi has been associated with the most varied artistic styles starting with Cycladic idols, African statuary, Greek archaic art, then the Egyptian, culminating with the rockets of the atomic age, after having previously been equally related to cubism, abstract art, Byzantine, oriental, Platonic spirituality and, last but not least, Romanian folklore.
This diversity of opinions is particularly evident at the stylistic turning point in the sculptor’s work, namely 1907-1910, the period in which the “Prayer”, “The Earth’s Rise” and “The Kiss” were created.
Many foreign researchers of his work point to elements of inspiration from our folklore (Paul Morand, Carola G., Welcker, Jean Cassou, Herbert Read); others such as Sidney Geist consider these elements to be of secondary value.
Romanian exegesis was oriented, naturally in a way, on the national specificity of Brâncuși’s creation.
These polemics around the work of the great Romanian sculptor seek to emphasize what is Romanian and what is universal in his creation.
His art has, without a doubt, renewed the meanings and orientation of sculpture, and therefore it must be received from the point of view of the cultural confluences that they reveal, which together make up a dialog with universal valences.
For an art lover open to the world of ideas and artistic currents that revolutionize the creation of artists and reshape the criteria of evaluation and perception/understanding of the public, the encounter with Brâncuși’s work is an overwhelming moment, entering a temple about whose symbols and artistic achievements have been written tens of thousands of pages in articles and volumes of presentation and analysis of the cognitive leap made by the father of modern sculpture.
There are authors who have devoted their entire lives to presenting and trying to explain Brâncuș’s works to the general public.
For some of his works that broke new ground in 20th century art, we have drawn on an extensive bibliography.
From these many volumes and pages, I have retained and synthesized what were for me some of the main ideas, in the Lecture Notes from the powerpoint presentations dedicated to the defining works of Brâncuși’s art.
