Creator story
Surprising fact
When Bird in Space reached the US, customs refused to call it art and taxed it as raw metal; Brâncuși won a landmark court case defining modern art.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaSculpture and Form
Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (1876–1957) was a pioneer of modern sculpture, who stripped form down to pure, polished essence. Works like Bird in Space distilled a living creature into a single soaring line.
Brâncuși's radical simplicity made him a founder of abstract sculpture and an inspiration to minimalism.
- Reduced living forms to pure, gleaming, abstract shapes.
- Bird in Space distilled flight into a single soaring line.
- Won a 1928 US court case that legally defined what counts as modern art.
Key works
Two works that open the world of Constantin Brâncuși
These works make it easiest to see how the artist changed form, content, and the very way art could exist in culture.
1923
Bird in Space
Bird in Space is a series of sculptures by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși. The original work was created in 1923 and made of marble. This sculpture is also known for containing seven marble figures and nine bronze casts.
1909
The Kiss
The Kiss shows how Constantin Brâncuși turns the language of sculpture and form into a coherent plastic form.