Constantin Brancusi was the archetype of the impoverish but passionate artist. He always dressed simply, reflective of his Romanian peasant background. His studio was reminiscent of the houses of the peasants from his native region. There was a big slab of rock to serve as a table and a primitive fireplace, similar to those found in traditional houses in his native Oltenia, while the rest of the furniture was made by him out of wood. He would cook his own meals, traditional Romanian dishes which he would treat his guests.

Despite his poverty, Brancusi would not trade for any other way of living. He was destined to be a great artist, and he knew it. In 1903, he walked from Bucharest for Paris, the center of modernist art at the time, The journey took him well over a year and entailed sleeping outdoors and relying on the generosity of strangers. Brancusi wasn’t swept by some romantic notion of exploring Europe or immersing himself in the natural world; he was simply broke and had no other option.

Brancusi arrived in Paris in 1904, and after a year long period of hardship and adjustment, during which time he was prevented from professionally making sculpture, he enrolled in the studio of Antonin Mercie at the École des Beaux-Arts. He paid his way working as a dishwasher and serving mass at the city’s Romanian orthodox church. Then, his exhibit at the Salon d’Autumne of 1906 earned him a position as a technician in Auguste Rodin’s studio, which involved turning the master’s compositions from clay into stone. Rodin was Brancusi’s idol and the era’s undisputed artistic heaveweight. But Brancusi quit after a month, because, as he famously put it, “nothing grows under big trees.” He needed to forge his own artistic path.

Soon after 1907, Brancusi’s mature period commenced. He began making abstract forms by sculpting the material directly as opposed to the significantly more common practice of making a model to be cast or executed by others. As his work evolved, Brancusi became immersed in the Parisian avant-garde. Though he was never a member of any organized art movement, his friends included the who’s who of the art world such as Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, and Henri Rousseau. In a significant break, five of Brancusi’s sculptures were included in the prestigious Armory Show in New York in 1913. More important shows followed. Brancusi was on his way to becoming a leading light of modernist art.

Abstracted Forms

“Simplicity is not an end in art, but we usually arrive at simplicity as we approach the true sense of things.” 

Brancusi sought simplicity through abstraction, paring down what is unnecessary to convey the essence of a thing. In his famous bird series for example, wood, marble or bronze are shaped into such refined aerodynamic purity that they seem ready to spring or take flight from the hold of the past. Maiastra (pictured below) is among the artist’s first sculptures to address the abstracted form of a bird. The work is inspired by the legendary bird of Romanian folklore, the Pasarea maiastra (Master bird), a mythic creature known for its golden plumage and arresting song.

From the 1920s to the 1940s, the theme of a bird in flight preoccupied Brancusi. He concentrated on the animals’ movement, rather than their physical attributes. In Bird in Space, Brancusi eliminated wings and feathers, elongated the swell of the body, and reduced the head and beak to a slanted oval plane. Balanced on a slender conical footing, the bird’s upward thrust appears unfettered. This sculpture is part of a series that includes seven marble sculptures and nine bronze casts, all designed to distill through abstraction, the essential nature of a bird in flight.

Other Iconic Works by Constantin Brancusi

Brancusi’s last sculpture was completed in 1949. In the years following, he continued to adjust and refine sculptural groupings in his studio, a project that underscored his interest in establishing dynamic dialogue among various works and they spaces they inhabit. In 1955, Brancusi was honured with a retrospective exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggeinheim Museum, New York. This important exhibition could not have come sooner. Brancusi died on March 16, 1957 in Paris.

Watch: A rare footage of Brancusi at work