Constantin Brâncuși was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered a pioneer of modernism, one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Brâncuși sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.
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“Work like a slave; command like a king; create like a god.”
Original in Romanian:
Muncește ca un sclav, poruncește ca un rege, creează ca un zeu.
Brancusi - De la Maiastra la Pasare in Vazduh (II), Observator Cultural, 2011-03-13, Matei Stircea-Craciun http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Brancusi-de-la-Maiastra-la-Pasare-in-vazduh-(II)*articleID_18619-articles_details.html,
Original in French:
Il y a des imbéciles qui définissent mon œuvre comme abstraite, pourtant ce qu'ils qualifient d'abstrait est ce qu'il y a de plus réaliste, ce qui est réel n'est pas l'apparence mais l'idée, l'essence des choses.
Caiete Silvane magazine, 2008-11-01, Sculptura pe Internet http://www.caietesilvane.ro/indexcs.php?cmd=articol&idart=232,
Original in Romanian:
Am șlefuit materia pentru a afla linia continuă. Și când am constatat că n‑o pot afla, m‑am oprit; parcă cineva nevăzut mi‑a dat peste mâini.
Jurnal American - 21 Septembrie, altă zi la New York, Centrul Cultural Pitești, 2008-11-01, Vavila Popovici http://www.centrul-cultural-pitesti.ro/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=406,</ref>
“Like everything else I've ever done, there was a furious struggle to rise heavenward.”
Brâncuși cited in: Finley Eversole (2009) Art and Spiritual Transformation. p. 329
“All my life l have sought the essence of flight. Flight — what bliss.”
Brâncuși cited in: Des Moines Art Center, Terry Ann R. Neff (1998) An Uncommon Vision. p. 66
“When we are no longer young we are already dead”
Attributed to Brâncuși in: Rene Dubot So Human an Animal: How We Are Shaped by Surroundings and Events. 1998, p. 112
“Don't look for mysteries. I give you pure joy.”
Brâncuși cited in: Horst Woldemar Janson, Anthony F. Janson (2004) History of Art: The Western Tradition.
