Page 37 - Studio International - April 1970

which a forward-looking young sculptor a gift for portraiture— that he could quickly
could measure himself. catch a likeness—but the portrait bust early
Brancusi was unlikely to look to painting for provided him with a vehicle internal to sculp-
any clues as to how sculpture might be ture convention that he found more satisfying
advanced. He had spent over six years at art than the figure, though of course it did not
schools in his native Rumania, three years in seem to offer the room for the development
the provinces and three in the academy in of his ambition as the Ecorché had—which is
Bucharest, which in its way must have pro- presumably why he went on struggling with
vided as good an academic background as the figure to no apparent end during his early
could have been found anywhere at the time, years in Paris. It was not that the possibili-
apparently emphasizing those qualities of ties of expression in the features of the por-
accuracy and attention to detail which can trait bust engaged him so much as the fact
be seen in the Ecorché which he completed in that the head and shoulders as a total form
his final year. provided a much more compact and con-
Apart from the Ecorché, the only surviving centrated gestalt than the extended figure. At
works from Brancusi's school period are nude first under the influence of Rodin, he went for
studies in relief, and portrait busts. In his the expression, the pathetic angle of the head,
first years in Paris, although he worked from and the features, later for the expression head, neck, limbs, torso—are re-conceived
the model at the Beaux Arts, almost all the inside the form itself. In 1906 and 1907 he as related, subtly modulated cylinders which
sculptures he cast were portrait busts or heads. made two versions of a head of a boy, called have been proportioned in terms of their
Perhaps one can base some observations on the Torment which illustrate this transition. In the place in an abstract structure. The broken
evidence of the early work that survives. first version the pose, expression and handling surface softens the structural quality of the
Firstly that the single figure, detached from are emotionally expressive of pathos of the sculpture, makes it more human, without
its surroundings, presented great difficulties title: in the second version—the plaster was any concession to the literal imitation of skin.
for Brancusi. Not technical difficulties, re-worked and then cast again—the bottom Although Brancusi never followed this parti-
because he was clearly already technically has been trimmed, the surface made tauter cular sculpture in an attempt to come to
well equipped. It seems rather that the figure and smoother: as a result the structure—the terms with the total and extended human
as a structure had for him at this stage, when organization of shape—starts to read as form, it evidently gave him a renewal of
he was committed to visual and anatomical dominant to the subject. confidence. The first Kiss, the Head of a Girl,
truth, a disturbing lack of unity and pro- In 1907 Brancusi probably worked as an the Double Caryatid, The Wisdom of the Earth all
portion. It is important to remember that all assistant to Rodin for a short while, then followed in the next year: Brancusi was
this early work was modelled in clay, then obtained an important commission for a port- carving directly first in stone, then in marble,
cast into plaster or bronze : he did not carve rait and a figure for a funerary monument in in which he found a material with an in-
directly in stone before 1907. The compact- Rumania. The figure that came out of the herent compactness and hardness of surface
ness of form and tautness of surface make it commission, entitled The Prayer, represented that would naturally suit his temperament.
appear that he would more naturally have for Brancusi later his real point of break- It was in 1907 that Brancusi really became a
carved most of these pieces, that the illusion through into something new. In spite of its modern artist and the explosive development
of rendering soft flesh in soft material—clay— ungainliness we can see why. In a head-on of his work in the next few years was simul-
was also alien to him. challenge to the problem of the total figure, taneous with but separate from the course of
The choice of the Ecorché as the major task of without losing more than half an arm in the Cubism.
his apprenticeship is thus most revealing— process, Brancusi managed to create a new
firstly the pose is ready-made—it is taken and equivalent system of related forms within II
directly from a classical model: the structure a satisfying and compact overall structure—in Rodin's conception of his own art, his own
is not that of the pose, but of the internal profile something very near to a 30-60-90 achievement, centred on the figure as the
mechanics of the figure. The subject has a triangle. Compared with Maillol's Night vehicle of expression. He saw himself as having
total anatomical truth; but is at the same time (1902: fig. 16) or Lehmbruck's Kneeling Woman freed the figure from being an element in
both hidden and mysterious, schematic and of 1911—of two contemporary sculptors who decorative or monumental composition to
abstract. Moreover there is no question of the were trying to make an 'architectural' unity being the composition itself. His subject
illusion of living flesh: the smooth, inter- of the figure in reaction to Rodin—Brancusi's matter was conventional enough for his time
locking sections of musculature could be ren- piece shows far greater daring. There is no and his intentions—in terms of the moral
dered with a hardness and precision that was attempt to render the flesh realistically, in- function of sculpture as a public art—were
proper and natural to the subject. side the confines of a structured pose, as in the common to many of his contemporaries. It
It is clear that Brancusi had what is known as Maillol: each of the elements of the figure— was his means of communicating the content