Brancusi

One hundred twenty years ago a young Romanian walked most of his way from Bucharest to Paris and ended up changing the world of art. For this anniversary, Paris’ Museum of Modern Art dedicated an all encompassing exhibit to Constantin Brancusi with more than 400 works of art, 120 sculptures and lots of archival content and films.

Brancusi seemed to be a rat pack and kept all papers, detailed correspondence, postcards from places where he or his friends traveled, personal documents, films made by him or some others about him, photos, music on vinyl and, of course, all the tools he used in his studio.

This is a treasure trove to understand Brancusi’s complex personality and to put together various aspects of his life. I may have seen before lots of his works in the American and European museums but I’ve never seen this impressive collection of documents that augments this spectacular exhibition.

One after another come also photos and letters from his forays in foreign lands, from America to Egypt and Asia. But one thing that is not mentioned is his visit to Romania when he was in his 70s with the intention to donate all his archive, copyright for his works, and the studio to the Romanian state.

However, after examining the offer, the Romanian Academy run by imbecilic communists and their Soviet darlings who were lurking in the shadows (like today), considered the work as ‘decadent’ and so incompatible with the proletarian art they wanted to promote.

The exhibit mentioned that Brancusi applied and received the French citizenship because he was afraid for the future of his work that may not be able to enter French museums if he were not a citizen but he did it also as a snub to the Romanian commies who refused his offer.

In the end Brancusi left his studio and all his archive to the French state that now is located at Center Pompidou in the heart of Paris, the city where he lived most of his life.