Page 27 - Studio International - October 1972

whose character verges on self-parody. That points only on either side where the
severe line which Sidney Geist has drawn deeply-incised circle around the eyes just
between Brancusi's sculpture and the bases, clears the horizontal at the top centre of each
furniture and useful objects, reflects a clear column. The sculpture has an immensely warm
division in the oeuvre which the sculptor and friendly presence: its effect is to draw in and
himself almost always respected. On the one embrace the spectator, who feels rather
hand, the sculptures proper — often, if not always protected than oppressed by its great bulk. The
banal and awkward in the initial idea but so image of the Kiss is thus transformed from a
worked on, so persistently defined by the description, however schematic, of two
carving process in the individual piece and in embracing lovers into a structure whose mass
series protracted and advanced over many years, embraces the spectator and the spectator's space.
but almost always retaining traces of an The most spectacular distinction from the Kiss
unaffected clumsiness of conception; on the of 1907 is the way in which the block in which
other hand, the bases, and more notably the the original was carved has been replaced by the
studio furniture, whose forms had been made central space, a block of air, around which the
possible by the innovations of the sculpture, but gate is structured. The proportions of this
which are essentially objects of taste, whose central void, slightly higher than it is wide, echo
formal character is circumscribed by their the proportions, seen in profile, of that first Kiss.
function. They set the tone, create the In the case of the Gate, the relation of this
atmosphere of the studio, but they are not
sculpture, and were not subject to the intensity
of commitment to the risks and adventure that
the sculpture carries. The Table of Silence at
Turgu Jiu seems to me to be such an article of
studio furniture, and its ambivalent status
between art and taste cannot be redeemed by
the portentous title and the dressing of
symbolism. The idea of 'table' inhibits the
growth of the object as sculpture in inverse
proportion as the idea of 'chair' unleashed truly
sculptural invention in the 'craftsman' Rietveld.3
It may be that the Table's inclusion in the
Turgu Jiu group at all resulted less from
Brancusi's desire to realize this conception in
itself as from his need to tidy up the vast
project, to unify the other two pieces by
providing a third term to the equation. The
decorative symmetry of the pathway and the
lining-up of the sculptures also seem directed The Kiss 1907 Endless Column IV 192o
to this end, giving what are essentially strange, Stone, II in. high Wood, 25 ft 5 in.
aggressive and self-referring objects with their Collection Edward Steichen (now destroyed)
own 'pull' a 'place' as elements of formalized (Opposite page)
landscape.4 Endless Column 1937 Table of Silence 1937
Cast iron, 96 ft 3 in. Stone, 2ft 74 in.
In contrast with the disappointment of the
Turgu Jiu Turgu Jiu Public Park
Table (I in fact saw the 3 sculptures in the
reverse order to that described here — first
Column, then Gate, then Table) the Gate is
superb. It is as fresh as the first and its
simple structure represents as great an advance
in the history of the motif as when the original
statement seemed to arrive 'from nowhere' in
1907,5 in a manner unique in Brancusi's oeuvre.
All the reservations which one might have had
about the Gate from acquaintance with it only
in photographic form fall away on confronting
the real thing. In reproduction the image of the
sculpture evokes the classical triumphal arch,
oriental free-standing doorways, megalithic
dolmens, and so on: but in reality the sculpture
feels like none of these possible examples. To
start with, it is marvellously light and airy: the
actuality of the evident size and weight of the
three component elements is countered by the
proportions, the drawing of and on the sculpture,
and the near-white colour of the stone: the
great lintel seems to float over the columns and
the central void, apparently anchored at the