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Brancusi at Beaubourg

17 avril 1995
02m 25s
Ref. 00229

Information

Summary :

Report on Constantin Brancusi's work on the occasion of an exhibit that is dedicated to him at the Pompidou Centre. The exhibit's commissioner, Margit Rowell, defines the artist's work as being "attached to the essence and not the appearance". Many shots of the exhibited sculptures including The Kiss and Bird in Space.

Media type :
Vidéo
Broadcast date :
17 avril 1995
Source :
A2 (Collection: JA2 20H )
Personnalité(s) :
Margit Pogany / Margit Rowell / Constantin Brancusi
Themes :
Places :

Context

The primitive beauty of theBaiser, the totemic sacredness ofColonnes sans fin, the slender modernity of the time ofOiseaux, the work of Constantin Brancusi brushed with universality, being both ancestral and resolutely contemporary. The sculptor of Romanian origin (1867-1957) was born in a village in the Carpathian mountains. The harsh treatment from his brothers pushed him to go on the road from adolescence, earning his keep from menial work. Brancusi would nevertheless frequent first the Craiova School of Crafts then the Bucharest School of Fine Arts and on to the Paris School of Fine Arts at the end of a long trek on foot over Europe in 1904. A story worthy of Rimbaldian bohemianism...

In Paris he was noticed by Rodin who offered for him to join his workshop. Brancusi stayed there for a while, swamped in the middle of the fifty assistants surrounding the master. "Nothing pushes great trees into the shadows" he declared. In reality, the approach of the two sculptors differed completely. When Rodin would fashion shapes that the assistants would then carry out, Brancusi revered the material. The purity and spirituality of his sculptures seemed to have no other aim than to reveal the natural force of the materials in the foreground which would be wood and stone. Just like that of his Fine Arts peers, Modigliani and Matisse, his work was influenced by Asian and African arts. His career would be linked to some famous friendships: Duchamp, Léger, Satie, Tzara, Cocteau and Man Ray.

Cécile Olive

Transcription

Gérard Dalmaz
Nothing grows in the shade of large trees. Brancusi only stays one month in the Rodin studio. The expression of the master still haunts a bit but Constantin Brancusi has already started his original path. Africa, Gauguin, against the grain of the Académie. Passion with a stone flower, the famous Kiss, 1910, the Brancusi manifesto.
(Music)
Gérard Dalmaz
From now on, the Parisian Romanian is building his universe from essential forms. The egg, the beginning of the world, faces with traced outlines, surfaces infinitely polished in a Far Eastern style. Light of meditation.
(Music)
Margit Rowell
Brancusi said that he didn't want to... that it wasn't the form that interested him, it was the essence of the thing. And as you can see, you've seen, in this exhibit, when there's a portrait of a woman like there's portraits, here, of Miss Povenine or of a Danaïde, it's the essence of the psychology of the woman that he knew, because it always starts with genuine models from real life. He was looking for the essence and not the appearance.
Gérard Dalmaz
Half-monk, half-droid, a mystic. Forces of nature, themes from beyond time. Bronze, recycled beams, direct freestone for a return to antiquity. A craftsman and a perfectionist, he does everything himself: his inspiration, his technique, his audacity don't leave any sculptor indifferent. Example: Bird in Space, "A miracle" he says.
(Music)
Margit Rowell
Talking about gravity in front of a bird that is all up high may seem bizarre, but it was one aspect of Brancusi's genious for him to feel the stone and he felt materials in such a way that even during earthquakes, there are works like this one that didn't even fall down.
Gérard Dalmaz
A patron of this first great Brancusi retrospective, the Havas group wants to share and get people to appreciate the plastic language of Brancusi, the unknown sculptor of famous sculptors. No doubt about it now. The creator of these creatures can sleep soundly. He has finally been recognised as one of the greats of the XXth century.
(Music)