╳ Always dressed in the simple style of Romanian peasants, Constantin Brâncuşi needs no introduction, however for those readers who are unacquainted with this master (very few), he was an internationally renowned Romanian sculptor whose works, which blend simplicity and sophistication, have led the way for numerous modernist sculptors. ╳ Brâncuşi grew up in the village of Hobiţa Romania, near Romania's Carpathian Mountains, an area known for its rich tradition of folk crafts, particularly woodcarving, and his parents Nicolae and Maria, were poor peasants who earned a meager living through back-breaking labour; and from the age of 7 he herded the family's flock of sheep. At the age of nine, Brâncuşi left his village to work in the nearest large town and at age 13 went to Craiova, where he worked at a grocery store for several years. Impressed by Brâncuşi's talent for carving, his employer financed his education at the School of Crafts in Craiova, where he pursued his love for woodworking, graduating with honours in 1898. After enrolling in the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, where he received academic training in sculpture, Brâncuşi worked hard and quickly distinguished himself.
╳ In 1903 Brâncuşi traveled to Munich, and then on to Paris, where he was welcomed by a vivid community of artists and intellectuals brimming with new ideas. He worked for two years in the workshop of Antonin Mercié of the École des Beaux-Arts, and was invited to enter the workshop of Auguste Rodin. Even though he admired the eminent Rodin, he left his studio after only two months, saying, "Nothing can grow under big trees."
╳ After leaving Rodin's workshop, Brâncuşi began developing the revolutionary style for which he is known. His first commissioned work, ‘The Prayer’, was part of a gravestone memorial, depicting a young woman crossing herself as she kneels, and marks the first step toward abstracted, non-literal representation, showing his drive to depict "not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things." He also began to do more carving, and by 1908 worked almost exclusively through this method. ╳ Based on his earlier ‘Maiastra’ series Brâncuşi began working on the group of sculptures that are known as ‘Bird in Space’ — simple shapes representing a bird in flight, and over the following 20 years, Brâncuşi would make 20-some versions of ‘Bird in Space’ out of marble or bronze. Interestingly, photographer Edward Steichen purchased one of the ‘birds’ in 1926 and shipped it to the U.S. However, the customs officers did not accept the ‘bird’ as a work of art and placed a duty upon its import as an industrial item, charging a high tax placed upon raw metals instead of the no tax on art, however a trial the next year overturned the assessment. His work became popular in the U.S. and he visited several times during his life.
╳ In 1938, he finished the World War I monument in Tîrgu-Jiu where he had spent much of his childhood. ‘Table of Silence’, ‘Gate of the Kiss’ and ‘Endless Column’ commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Romanian civilians who in 1916 fought off a German invasion. The Târgu Jiu ensemble marks the apex of his artistic career, and in his remaining 19 years he created less than 15 pieces, mostly reworking earlier themes, and while his fame grew he withdrew. In 1956 Life magazine reported, "Wearing white pajamas and a yellow gnomelike cap, Brâncuşi today hobbles about his studio tenderly caring for and communing with the silent host of fish birds, heads, and endless columns which he created." 
╳ During the last decade of his life, Brâncuşi was cared for by a Romanian refugee couple: Duminitresco and Istrati. He became a French citizen in 1952 in order to make the caregivers his heirs, and to bequeath his studio and its contents to the French state, which installed an exact replica of the space next to Paris’s Pompidou Centre in 1977. It was a move that forever limited the market for the artist’s work, exemplified in the fact that only 16 Brâncuşi works have been sold since 2000. During these years Brâncuşi created everything they needed from chairs to lamps to pipes and pots thus revealing a little known aspect of Brâncuşi’s art: a search for harmony between his sculptures and where he lived. ╳ Brâncuşi’s studio was reminiscent of the houses of the peasants from his native region and he was famous for his meticulous placement and constant rearrangement if the objects in his studio, which has led the space being described as his most supreme work.
╳ Images (top to bottom)
The artist in his studio
Light made by Brâncuşi
Suitcases he arrived in Paris with in 1903
Works in Atelier Brâncuşi, Paris
Bird in Space
1923
Marble (with base) 144.1* 16.5cm
Sleeping Muse I
1909-10
The Endless Column
Cast iron 29.33m
