Constantine Brancusi Biography Essay Example For Students

Constantine Brancusi Biography Essay I found it very difficult to find information on Constantine Brancusi in hard copy, therefore, you will see at the end of my paper that all of my sources are websites. The little information I did locate on the artist was very, very little. Therefore, I combined the small amount of information with some research I found on artists that were strongly influenced by Brancusi. Brancusis imprint on contemporary sculptural practice ranges from the dissemination of furniture-oriented sculpture and the emerging topos of architectural folly to new paradigms for public art. At the same time many postwar artists engaging in a dialogue with his legacy have read and productively misread Brancusis work. Through the violent but fecund gesture of subjective intervention, these artists have extracted from it new practices of far greater critical and historical significance than might have resulted from an objective, historicist approach. After his death in 1957, renewed interest in Brancusi occurred first and foremost in the United States. The Endless Column and many of the artists bases and furniture pieces, such as his working tables and stools, proved to be relevant to the concerns of U. S. sculptors who came to prominence in the 1960s. In particular, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, and Richard Serra grew specifically interested in the structural makeup of the column based on the cloning of a single, identical unit. Its repetitive, modular, and nonhierarchical morphology provided them with an economical way of circumventing the relational orders of mainstream European art. The public works of Scott Burton and Martin Puryear have contributed not only to the ongoing debate between high art and utilitarian design, but also to a heightened awareness of arts social function. Like the Russian Constructivist, Bauhaus, and De Stijl practitioners before them, or the generation of furniture sculptors succeeding them, Burton and Puryear both considered that art should serve society as design and architecture do. Burtons and Puryears mutual interest in Brancusis art-cum-craft background is also shared by Richard Pettibone, who has signaled a connection between Brancusis aesthetic and that of the Shaker community. Pettibone is a pioneer of appropriation art, yet, unlike other artists of his generation who have denounced the pursuit of ideal form, he has unapologetically extolled it. He argues that Brancusis series of Endless Columns aspire to a perfection similar to a Shaker chair or a candle stand. This statement can be read as the antinomy within Brancusis project: that the most significant of his sculptures come close to the economy and integrity of the pedestal. Brancusis revolutionary reversal of the base from passive podium to generative element has likewise informed Didier Vermeiren, who is best known for his large corpus of works based on the assemblage of two identical pedestals. In Vermeirens so-called pedestal on top of a pedestal, pedestal and sculpture form replicas of one another. Elevating the element that is ordinarily used for the display of works gauged more valuable, all these artists have cunningly received, aesthetic orders. In the process, they have problematized and restructured the power relations between high and low, aesthetic and functional. Similarly, in different versions of the Endless Column, Brancusi played categories of pedestal against sculpture, and sculpture against architectural unit, until formal and functional elements performed an intricate self-cancellation. Unquestionably, next to the producer of the readymade, Brancusi was a legitimate transformateur Du Champ. The reversals exercised by Burton, Pettibone, Puryear, and Vermeiren with their point of departure in Brancusis works have subsequently been extended by younger artists interested not only in subverting prevailing cultural codes, but also in enhancing the social function of art. Among them, Kcho Alexis Leyva Machado has returned to the social agenda inaugurated by the historic avant-garde to address issues pertinent to the last quarter of the twentieth century, including problems of forced migration and cultural dislocation. Jean Arp Biography EssayIn a sign of homage, Sachs has even scribbled on the entrance door of his studio Brancusis name in white and underlined it with an arrow to replicate the unassuming mark found outside of Brancusis atelier in Impasse Ronsin. Before Brancusis studio was reconstructed by the architect Renzo Piano and opened once again to the public in 1997, Sachs suggested that it should be re-created with the most advanced technology available and be made as virtual as possible in order to maintain its tenor even in the absence of the artists performative acts. Although Disneyesque in spirit, Sachss version might in the end have pleased his predecessor more than one thinks. If Brancusis perennial experimentation with mobile groups and with the concept of social environment functioned as a source of inspiration for the contemporary situation, then one function of art today is to keep his legacy going. When I say, keep it going, I mean by continuously reframing it in relation to the changed conditions of the world and in ways congenial to arts reflexive strategies, ranging from playful allusion to demystificatory critique. In conclusion, I was very happy to learn about the strong influences that Constantine Brancusi has had on modern sculptors and their work. I feel that as a result of doing this research paper I have become very knowledgeable on Brancusis style. I feel confident enough to say that I may very well be able to recognize Brancusis influences on modern sculpture in future visits to museum and galleries. Thanks!