Friedrich Teja Bach

A truly beautiful book showcasing the work of Constantin Brancusi. I'm not sure when I first became aware of Brancusi's work but certainly one of the books by Sidney Geist made a big impression on me. After a bit of research I've found that it was "Brancusi: a study of the sculpture" by Sidney Geist. He seems to be the consummate scholar and is truly expert on Brancusi. What especially struck me was his analysis of the Seal and Bird in Space ....both of which are truncated in a slightly odd way when one compares the line of the curves that have been truncated. ...Anyway, I became fascinated by the way Brancusi at a time when the cubists were trendy, had simplified his sculptural forms to the very basics. Sometimes I wondered about works such as architectural Project (1918) but overall I was really taken by his imagination and technical genius. Especially exemplified by his birds in space ....where he's drilled the bird out near the base junction and inserted a stainless steel rod. I consider myself very fortunate to have both the white marble and the black marble versions in the National Gallery in Canberra and have enjoyed them innumerable times. The current book has magnificent photographs...some of them taken by Brancusi himself who was apparently a very keen photographer and certainly took some great pictures of his own work. There is also a collection of his drawings and some paintings...though the connection with his sculptures is rarely clear. Certainly, it looks like, in some cases that the drawings were done after the sculpture rather than as an input to the sculpture..
There are also three significant essays, one by Freidrich Teja Bach where he rejects the the notion of Brancusi's work as hermetic, timeless, and pure, and examines instead the combinations of form and material that make Brancusi's works paradoxical. A second essay by Margit Rowell explores the sculptor's place in the artistic climate of Paris in the 1910s and 1920s and his rejection of the dominant styles and subject matter in favour of non-Western sources, particularly African and Asian art. And the third essay by Ann Temkin traces the history of Brancusi's American patronage during his lifetime by such influentia lectors as John Quinn, Katherine Dreier, Peggy Guggenheim, and Louis a Walter Arensberg. But for me it's the photos of the works themselves that is utterly captivating. They seem to have covered all the major works and many of the much less significant works. I also love the photos of Brancusi's studio ...especially as it now stands in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. I've visited it a few times and am always struck by the variety of the forms there and the evidence of hard physical labour that obviously accompanies much of his work. Plus the monumentality of some pieces such as the Cocks. The book mentions that Brancusi was contemplating making a 160 foot high "bird in flight" in stainless steel but it never came off. But he did achieve the endless column in his home town which he considered to be close to the acme of his achievements.
Anyway, all in all a lovely book, a great biography of a great artist and a magnificent photographic gallery as well. Five stars from me.… (mer)