Exhibitions: Brancusi as Photographer

Fall 1980: The photographs by sculptor Constantin Brancusi, on view at The Brooklyn Museum September 15 -November 2, 1980, present the artist’s personal vision of his sculpture and the process of their creation. The exhibition, Brancusi as Photographer, was organized by the Akron Art Institute with 73 vintage prints on loan from the Musée National d‘Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Disappointed with the reproductions others had taken of his work, Brancusi undertook the documentation of his sculpture with the assistance of fellow artist Man Ray. He photographed single pieces of sculpture isolated from the environment, multiplying the views of a single subject by changing the angle of vision. Photography also provided a tool to study works in progress, often juxtaposing pieces within the studio environment and enabling Brancusi to extend his work into a two-dimensional form. Closely related to his sculpture by a common concern with light, shape, and texture, these photographs mark in deliberate ways the stages of Brancusi’s creative process.

One of the 20th century's major sculptors, Brancusi created works of wood, stone, polished marble, and bronze that were well received by critics, collectors, museum curators, and fellow artists over the years. Of the radically reduced forms of his sculpture, Brancusi once explained that “what is real is not the exterior form but the idea, the essence of things.” Brancusi is able to establish a unique relationship with the viewer through the essence of his sculpture communicated in his photographs.

The exhibition is accompanied by Brancusi: Photographer ($17.50), a comprehensively illustrated, 124-page book, translated from the Centre Georges Pompidou’s 1977 French edition, as well as by a checklist introduced by John Coplans and published by the Akron Art Institute. Following the New York venue, the exhibition will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago (December 6-February 8, 1981).

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1980, 039-40. View Original 1 . View Original 2