Curator, Anne Umland: This exhibition explores three different stories: the story of Brancusi’s art, the story of the artist, and the story of the studio spaces that he maintained on Impasse Ronsin in Paris for over 40 years.
My name is Anne Umland, and I’m guest curator of Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio.
Brancusi was born in 1876 in rural Romania, and he emigrated to Paris in 1904. He goes to the École de Beaux-Arts, and soon after graduating, he broke with past sculptural tradition. And I think it is no exaggeration to say that he redefined sculpture in the 20th century through this unprecedented simplicity of his forms.
This portrait is taken in Brancusi’s studio. This is a space where he lives, he works, he has fabulous parties. And it became the primary site where you had to go if you wanted to see Brancusi’s art.
You see him in a sort of workman’s cap, this double-buttoned workman’s shirt, the wide sash that is typical of Romanian farmers. Brancusi is both a member of cosmopolitan Paris, and he also is very conscious of where he came from and wants that to be part of how people understand who he is as an artist.