The Grob Gallery is proud to present an exclusive online exhibition based around Constantin Brancusi and his photographs.
The group of photographs that we have included in this exhibition are all currently in clouded in the Brancusi exhibition in the Museum show at Bozar in Brussels. These are Photographs that show the man behind the lens, the man behind the chisel and the man who appreciated all thing beautiful. From sculptural studies, to flowers, from ‘selfies’ to columns.
Constantin Brancusi is acknowledged as one of the greatest artists of 20th century and is regarded as one of pinnacle pioneers of Modernism.
‘Any collector with ambitions of building a great modern art collection needs to have a Brancusi,’ says Conor Jordan, Deputy Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s New York. ‘He was the high priest of modernism.’
The reason Brancusi’s photographs are so important are because they depict his vision, he was very insistent on how we view his works, how the light falls. The recombination from three dimensions into two. Brancusi fell in love with photography after he and Man Ray became close friends in 1921. Brancusi told Man Ray that the photographs that Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen had recently been taken where, “very good photographs but they don’t show the soul of my work”. At which, Man Ray helped Brancusi buy the right equipment and also to set up his own darkroom. Man Ray gave him an education in photography, not only the technical aspect but also the way to use photography within an artistic sense.
Brancusi took photography as a way of seeing his sculptures within a new perspective, finding a new soul within the work by interacting with his sculptures as they dance with the light and move around his studio surroundings. After mastering photography, quickly after Man Rays induction, Brancusi decided that only his photographs could be used for reproductions of his sculptures and this lasted till his death in 1957.
His photographic archive was given to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and his photographs are now in every important museum. There are less than 200 prints left in private hands.
Through this exhibition, you can admire some of his greatest photographs,currently exhibited at Museum Bozar at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in the exhibition “Brancusi. La sublimation de la forme”, held for the EUROPALIA ROMANIA edition (1st October 2019 – 12nd January 2020)