Assistant Curator, Mia Matthias: Brancusi embodied many contradictions, and I think this is a really beautiful instance of him doing that because of how he’s able to capture both movement and stillness.
On this platform, we have the 1926 sculpture Leda and the 1930 sculpture Fish. Both sculptures include ball bearings, which give them the potential to rotate. With Fish, Brancusi could activate the sculpture by pushing it. For Leda, Brancusi repurposed the motor for a gramophone player and embedded it in the base, so that Leda could actually turn using the motor.
However, even if the work isn’t spinning, he was able to evoke movement in different ways. His sculptures transform as you move around the object. In the case of Leda, as you move around the work, it’s actually reflecting you, and so any movement you make is also captured by the sculpture. With Fish, Brancusi chose this veined, blue-gray marble that feels as if it is in motion even when it is still.
So what I love about how Brancusi approaches movement is that he doesn’t attempt to mimic the form. You don’t necessarily need to capture the fish and its scales. He instead evokes the essence of it.
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