Constantin Brancusi

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Brancusi After training as a sculptor Constantin Brancusi in Romania came to Paris, which was then the paradise of the new art was. Clay, the material of the molder is inherently formless and is endlessly replenished. It leads to growing forms, and - most importantly - can be formed at high speed back and change shape. Stone hand is always in some form to the sculptor. The sculptor who immediately sees that form often cut as a noble presence. He suggests it an honor to respect the stone and design as to make, thus restricting the material to remove, that presence is not weakened. Sculpting is a process of adding, removing, push and turn to clay, and carving directly into an irreversible process, but a direction in which the mass always decreases.

From S. Geist, Brancusi, The Kiss, New York 1978

From: Ella Reitsma, the intricate simplicity of Brancusi. In: Netherlands Fri, 13 May 1995

At the academies were (late last century) is only modeled in clay. A craftsman made the clay model of a plaster cast in bronze by the foundry was cast. An artist himself was not involved with this special skill. Far beneath him. Rodin, the great god among sculptors, Brancusi asked to assist him in his studio in Meudon. As staff worked fifty men to the Rodin statues in various sizes, in marble or bronze, to perform. Rodin made a clay model, assistants did the rest. It was an entire industry. After a few weeks Brancusi thanked for the honor. "Under no large trees grow," he commented. (-)

Brancusi, with signature kusembleem

The two lovers in Brancusi's 'The Kiss' embrace. They form a square block, head and body meet in the middle. Their arms, where the block ends, take a bow, are the horizontal connections of the two straight blocks that depict men and women. Mouth and eyes are into each other, forming nearly one eye and a mouth. In later images with this theme that has developed pregnanter. Brancusi used his whole life this image, beginning of the new sculpture, as an emblem on his business cards. Their content had meaning for him. Unity, balance of opposites and love for life were his leitmotifs. If your image with "The Kiss" by Rodin compares twenty years earlier was made, you see and experience the difference. Rodin tells a story of perfectly nice people. Entranced a woman gives herself to a man that is all strength. Then and now a clich. Brancusi both form and content breaks radically with this famous example.

Comparison of Kiss Kiss by Rodin and Brancusi Brancusi's Kiss: small, compact, limestone, opposite the large, pointed, shiny marble by Rodin. The complicated work of Rodin by technical assistants from the version originally sculpted into marble. Rodin's figures are immediately identifiable: a very nice man and a woman, beautiful of anatomy, full of movement. They are displayed during the process of embracing. (...) The Kiss by Brancusi is presented in an eternal present, without beginning or continuation, as still as the stone from which it was hewn. Rodin man is bigger than the woman - his head is bent over hers. When Brancusi's no distinction. Rodin's realistic starting point allows space between the torso and know to bring variety into the four arms and four legs. Rodin's lovers sitting on a rock as the base portions of the work together. Brancusi at the lovers as stable and solid as the rock from which they were hewn. Rodin creates the illusion of the rock with a situation, a fictional space, corresponding to the illusion of reality in his figures. Brancusi shows only the lovers.

From: S. Geist, Brancusi, The Kiss, New York 1978

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Constantin Brancusi

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The Kiss, the first from 1907 - 1908 Two lovers in tight embrace. The chest of the man is an undifferentiated mass, the chest of the woman is slightly arched. The lovers are facing fixed in an endless attention to each other as their lips meet. Each element in the compact picture focuses on the theme of male / female. The hair of the man is straight, the woman waved. His hair is separated and falls down, not hers, and it falls back, (...) the back of the male is broader than that of women, and so on. These differences are variations in form a symmetrical design, but at the same time emphasize the sexual difference. Form and meaning are as tightly linked as the characters themselves.

These are not only linked by the visible horizon languages of arms each circle, but also by the secret horizontals which are implicit in the gaze of the eyes, the touch of the lips, the pressure of the chest: this man and woman from Inside and out united. And they are united by the rock mass. (...) Anatomical elements are eliminated. The noses are gone, there are no ears, chins and necks need not be made visible. Elbow and wrist are. We know just enough: that a man and a woman. There are minor differences can be seen on different sides of the picture: eyes more oval or more round, difference in attitude of the poor, but we are not challenged the image always another side to approach in search of new perspectives, unexpected effects . The kiss is immediately understood.

Brancusi, The Kiss of 1907-8, Sides

Variations on the kiss 1908 has a rougher surface, is higher than the first. On one side, eyes wide, summarized in a ring. 1909 The Kiss of Montparnasse is much higher, the figures for the feet, legs intertwined. The innocence of the first kiss has been replaced by an image of pagan directness: (...) there is probably beyond the primitive art not reflect the sexual act that is so undisguised and yet so discreet. AI are the lovers in this kiss displayed in a passionate act, its intensity is softened by a new rigor in design and execution. Front and rear are almost identical, the hands make the same gesture. Although the hair a rough texture, the image elsewhere show a smooth finished surface that traces the hand of the artist-drawing process and time - remove.

Thus, the impersonal form, and absolutely timeless. On December 5, 1910 staged a Russian medical student, Tania Rachevskaia, Paris suicide because of an unhappy love affair with a young doctor. The doctor, a Romanian and a friend of Brancusi, asked him for a picture for this girl's grave. Brancusi introduced him to find out what he thought and he chose it appropriate to kiss the grave sites. (...) The kiss as a symbol of love and unity, life is reflected in the Column of the kiss. Brancusi has an element isolated from relatively realistic images and an abstract design made it a mysterious force has: the main purpose of the column consists of the stylized eyes of the kiss, in a circular shape, whereby the circle bisected by a deep quarry that continues in the column and a repeat of the quarry of the kiss those eyes and bodies of the lovers apart.

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Constantin Brancusi

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Brancusi, The Kiss of 1909, front and side

Gate of the Kiss Brancusi was commissioned in 1935 to a monument in Tirgu Jiu in Romania designed to provide people who were killed in the First World War. He designed three images as a coherent whole across an east / west axis: "Table of Silence," "Endless Column" in the middle 'gate of the kiss. " Brancusi has created a model (scale 1:10). Most parts are carved in limestone and then in parts in plaster cast. The cast parts were light and could easily be transported to Romania and increases in the execution spot. The overall shape of the gate of the kiss is that of a rigid arch. For a continuous frieze architrave designed Brancusi of lovers - the kiss at full length in highly stylized form. The pillars are based on his column of the kiss. The short, square pillars are powerful but not heavy grooves and the inward curving surfaces. The circles of the "eyes" are masterfully placed just below the areas where most pressure relieve the "eyes" to the masses. Repetition of motifs is not a lack of imagination: the port is at first sight clear and understandable, and delivers his message and persistent conjuring. The theme of the "port" is love and the community, driven by sexual energy. When an American sculptor Brancusi, who visited in 1938, asked what she saw in his model of the "Port", she replied: "I see the two types of cells that meet to create life. The beginning of life ... through love. Am I right? " "Yes," said Brancusi, "you're right."

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Constantin Brancusi

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Brancusi, Study for Port, 1917-1918

Brancusi, Model for Port, 1935-1937

Brancusi's aphorisms Direct carving is the true way to sculpture, but also the worst for those who can not walk away. And ultimately it does not matter whether directly or slashes. It's the work itself. Art does not represent ideas, but she brings forth - so that a work of art is created intuitively, without prior thought out reasons, because it is itself the motive is one of them beforehand, and no account can cover. Happiness and love is the sweet smell of our being. They occur only in the direct contact between two people and last only as long as that contact pure and sincere.

From: Pontus Hultus, 8rancusi, New York 1986

Brancusi's studio The sculptor Carel Visser in 1954 with his wife visited the studio in the Impasse Ronsin number 11 near the Gare Montparnasse. "We are up to it. We knocked on. Nothing. Wait, wait again and then we just wanted to leave, we heard shamble. The door inches open. "Where are you from?" "From the Netherlands." '0, There is also a Sandberg) away. Come back in an hour but. "When that door a crack was very rude, I quickly looked past him inside. All images were silent. When we came back, who turned statues very slowly. He was now as that plugs into the wall outlet. Even that great things were running. Brancusi was a little man with a white rough linen cap, in a slightly grubby white suit. He was not neglected. More like a king. He held a stick in his hand. If we have not spent enough attention to an image, then he poked you in the back. Nobody said a word. And everything was there, that rooster, the infinite column, homemade benches and seats. The workshop was full and everything was perfectly balanced. Blocks of stone, loose things on an iron ring he suddenly tilted

From: Ella Reitsma: The complex simplicity of Constantin Brancusi. In: Netherlands Fri May 13, 1995

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Constantin Brancusi

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on a piece of marble was put. 1) former director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

When we were asked to sit on a bench and pulled out a box of Droste-round cops appeared. Silently. That he had meanwhile reached a moment. We were so fifteen minutes in dead silence, ate and watched the cops. Look you should not really mention. You drank the images, you sucked them inside. He also had a sort of phonograph with a large head and needle, you could run those thick plates. For a moment he put a plate and you could hear the chirping of birds. It was an experience, and he was stressed or you have a good look. Then he gave a sign that we could go. I think it all together lasted a half hour, but says we greet more than one hour this week. This workshop later Pompidou is reconstructed, it was rubbish. That was much smaller. Even though it says Hulten (former director of Centre Pompidou) that the same thing was nonsense. The original studio was also significantly higher. That infinite columns, a dozen, large and small, were stacked in the corner. For me as a tremendous shock, felt that he was a recent picture to put an old picture. That was a totally modern thought and perspective of your work.

Brancusi Atelier with the kiss, 1925

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