Description

Inside Brancusi's Paris atelier where he worked for 40 years, as seen through the artist's own extraordinary photographs

Dissatisfied with how others represented his work, the legendary sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) took up the camera himself. Over his lifetime, he produced more than 1,000 photographs documenting the evolution of his artworks and the unique setting in which they were made. These luminous duotone images capture his ever-changing studio over the course of four decades, ranging from intimate studies of individual sculptures to wide-angle views of carefully arranged ensembles. Layered scenes of in-progress artworks, tools and raw materials--including salvaged oak beams and rough blocks of marble--offer behind-the-scenes glimpses of Brancusi's creative process. Photographs of the artist alongside an array of visitors, including Man Ray, Berenice Abbott, Marcel Duchamp and Mina Loy, illustrate the studio as a lively space of work, play and display.
Brancusi's photographs bring to life his art and his studio as he wanted them to be seen, with extraordinary vividness and intimacy. Featuring more than 130 photographs taken by the artist, this lavishly illustrated volume offers a revealing portrait of Brancusi's dynamic environment that ultimately became a work of art in its own right.