The polished bronze head of Blond Negress II sits atop a multipart base made of wood, limestone, and marble elements. In addition to drawing on the folk art of his native Romania, Brancusi was one of many artists working in Paris during the 1920s who appropriated elements of African sculpture which he saw in private collections and at Paris’s Musée d’Ethnographie; indeed, he credited both traditions with a unique expertise in wood carving. The series to which this work belongs was allegedly inspired by an African woman Brancusi saw at the 1922 Colonial Exposition in Marseilles—one of the era’s international fairs meant to promote Europe’s imperialist interests.
Gallery label from 2021
