Constantin Brâncuși Blond Negress II Paris 1933 (after a marble of 1928)

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 514 The David Geffen Wing

The polished bronze head of Blond Negress II sits at eye level atop a multipart base made of carved wood, limestone, and marble elements; all four of Brancusi’s most-used materials. The series to which the sculpture belongs was initiated in 1923 with a white marble version titled White Negress I, allegedly inspired by an African woman Brancusi saw at a colonial fair in Marseilles in 1922. Many artists working in Paris during the 1920s, including Pablo Picasso, borrowed heavily from non-Western art, particularly art from various regions in Africa. Like many of Brancusi’s sculptures,Blond Negress II departs from the realism typical to most conventional Western sculpture of the period. Even so, his work is still a portrait, since it is based on a particular person, though a nameless one.

Gallery label from Constantin Brancusi Sculpture, 2018
Medium
Bronze 15 3/4" (40 cm) high, on four-part pedestal of marble 3 5/8" (9.1 cm) x 3 3/4" (9.4 cm) in diameter, limestone 9 7/8 x 14 5/8 x 14 1/8" (25 x 37.1 x 36.2 cm), and two oak sections (carved by the artist) 7 3/8 x 14 3/8 x 14 1/4" (18.6 x 36.3 x 36.2) and 35 1/2 x 11 x 11" (90.2 x 28 x 28 cm), overall 71 1/4 x 14 1/4 x 14 1/2" (181 x 36.2 x 36.8 cm)
Credit
The Philip L. Goodwin Collection
Object number
97.1958.a-e
Copyright
© Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (ARS) 2018
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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