Curator, Anne Umland: This final gallery explores Brancusi’s late and last works, in fact.
In the 1930s, Brancusi received a commission in Indore, India, for a Temple of Love, which ultimately was never built. On the platform is a 10-foot-high carved wood sculpture that Brancusi gave the title King of Kings. But when he first conceived it, it was called Spirit of the Buddha, and he imagined it positioned in a space along with three versions of Bird in Space.
There is a polished Bird in Space on the platform, and then if you look over, there is an even larger Bird in Space. And so you can get a sense of the grandeur of having these sculptures brought together and some small sense of Brancusi’s vision of what would’ve been a sacred space.
Another thing that these works do, for me at least, is evoke the aura of Brancusi’s studio, which many visitors would refer to as a “cathedral” or a “sanctuary.” I think a really important thread for Brancusi is this idea of mystery and realities beneath the surface of things. What Brancusi brought to sculpture that had never been done before is this idea of creating forms that didn’t have to do with how things look but with their spirit.