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Coinciding with the Museum of Modern Art’s forthcoming exhibition Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio, Bruce Silverstein presents more than 30 rare vintage photographs that Constantin Brâncuși himself took and printed, spanning nearly the full range of his photographic practice: individual sculptures, groupes mobiles, studio views, self-portraits, and still lifes of natural forms, including flowers.
Photography was never secondary to Brâncuși’s sculpture. As he produced fewer new sculptural forms, the camera became an increasingly important outlet for his creative energy—a means of documenting the continually changing installation of his studio, studying individual sculptures and natural forms, and transforming what he saw there. Photography allowed him to make permanent effects that were otherwise fleeting: the passage of light across polished bronze, cast shadow, reflection, glare, silhouette, negative space, and the shifting relationship between one form and another. Within the photograph, these elements became as deliberate as mass, material, and form.
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The studio itself developed into an evolving, organic installation in which sculptures, bases, furniture, light, and space were continually reconsidered. These relationships became so important that Brâncuși ultimately left the contents of his studio to the French state with provisions for its reconstruction. His photographic archive was extensive, yet relatively few prints left his possession during his lifetime, making surviving examples in private hands exceptionally rare.
Those that did leave the studio often passed directly to family, friends, and members of his artistic circle. Works in this presentation include examples from James Johnson Sweeney, the influential museum curator and director; John Constantin Brâncuși Moore, Brâncuși’s own son; and Marthe Lebherz, a dancer and close companion of the artist.
Taken together, the presentation offers an unusually complete view of Brâncuși’s photographic achievement and of photography’s central role in how he composed, reconsidered, documented, and ultimately preserved his sculptural world.
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Studio View: The Sorceress, Torso of a Young Girl, The Newborn and Mademoiselle Pogany II, 1923
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1923
Annotated on verso
One of two known prints, the second print is in the Galerie de France collection.11 7/8 x 15 1/2 in (30.2 x 39.4 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Endless Column, 1927
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1927
15 1/4 x 19 1/4 in (38.7 x 48.9 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Vue de l’Atelier, 1923
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1923
Annotated 'Before moving [the studio] from 8 to 11 [Impasse Ronsin] in unknown hand on verso
7 3/4 x 11 3/4 in (19.7 x 29.8 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
View of the Studio: Bird in Space, Princess X, and Leda, 1925
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1940s
Annotated 'Avant 1932 Column en bois' in artist's hand on verso
15 5/8 x 11 3/4 in (39.69 x 29.85 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Vue d'Atelier, Adam et Coupe, Eve, 1921-1922
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1921-1922
Annotated 'Avant 1932 Column en bois' in artist's hand on verso
6 x 9 in (15.2 x 22.9 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Vue d'atelier: le Nouveau-Né II, bronze poli (av. 1923), la Muse endormie III, marbre (1917 - 1918), 1930
Gelatin silver print, printed before 1934
8 5/8 x 11 in (22 x 28 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Studio View with Plato, Beginning of the World, 1920s
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1920s
Annotated 'Avant 1932 Column en bois' in artist's hand on verso
7 x 9 3/8 in (17.8 x 23.8 cm)
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Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957)
Brancusi jouant avec Polaire, 1924
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1924
Titled on verso
7 7/8 x 11 5/8 in (20.2 x 29.8 cm)
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