Constantin Brancusi @ Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NYC

Brâncuşi’s Flowers
Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York
May 16 - June 29, 2019

Bruce Silverstein Gallery presents Brâncuşi’s Flowers, organized in collaboration with Kasmin. The exhibition will be on view at 529 West 20th Street, and presented concurrently with Brâncuşi: The Photographer at Kasmin, on view at 293 Tenth Avenue.

Brâncuşi’s Flowers offers an unprecedented opportunity to view eight of the sixteen known images on the subject matter. Each photographed and printed by the artist in his darkroom during the 1920s and 1930s, these still lifes, or “nature’s readymades”, served dual purposes for the artist. Firstly, they were created as gifts for friends and lovers serving as lasting objects of his affection, in contrast with the flowers themselves destined for decay. Secondly, they were a further extension of Brancusi’s explorations into photography, fixing flora and fauna at the pinnacle of their sculptural beauty. Brâncuşi’s Flowers highlights a chapter within his concise oeuvre that is singular in its focus on a subject matter outside of the artist's own making.

Constantin Brâncuşi’s photographs evolved throughout his life, as did the artist’s sculptural practice. Moving rapidly from early, straight images documenting the artist’s interest in realism, his photographs matured into more interpretative representations such as modernist masterworks Sleeping Muse, Eve, and the iconic Bird in Space. It was in these later works, starting around 1917, that the artist began to focus on those more ephemeral elements which could only be captured as permanent with the aid of the camera. Light, shadow, reflection, and particularly in his studio views, special orientation and negative space became paramount. Photographing flowers was a natural extension for the artist, as the camera enabled Constantin Brâncuşi to capture these forms in a state of natural flux, transforming them into sculptural objects frozen in a state of perpetual life. 

Brâncuşi’s Flowers marks the third exhibition at Bruce Silverstein to feature the photographs of Constantin Brâncuşi.

BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY

529 West 20th Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10011

www.brucesilverstein.com

Constantin Brancusi @ Kasmin Gallery, NYC - The Photographer

Brancusi: The Photographer
Kasmin Gallery, New York
May 16 - June 29, 2019

“Photography is the form in which Brancusi speaks about his sculpture.”—Friedrich Teja Bach

Kasmin presents Brancusi: The Photographer, organized in collaboration with Bruce Silverstein Gallery. The exhibition will be on view at 293 Tenth Avenue, presented concurrently with Brancusi’s Flowers at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, on view at 529 West 20th Street.

Brancusi: The Photographer brings together 30 rare vintage gelatin silver prints spanning two decades that illuminate the significance of photography in the artist’s oeuvre. In 1921, Constantin Brancusi began to committedly pursue photography, influenced by his friendship with Man Ray, whose guidance on the technical elements of medium and mastery of the darkroom strengthened Brancusi’s command of the practice. This collaborative dialogue between the two artists led to numerous technical and artistic innovations within and beyond the photographic medium.

Aside from their inherent indexical nature, Brancusi’s photographs reinforce the artists’ intentions for his sculptures. Taken in the intimate, atmospheric environment of his carefully orchestrated studio design at the Impasse Ronsin in Paris, many of the works in the exhibition depict assemblages comprised of Brancusi’s most regarded sculptures, found objects and material fragments. They demonstrate the artist’s investment not only in the sculptures as individual entities but also in their relationship to one another in the context of a synthesized tableau. These ‘group mobiles’ create narrative juxtapositions amongst the rooms’ dramatic pitches of light and shadow, allowing Brancusi to emphasize salient elements of his work and recontextualize their forms.

An indelible, recurring subject in Brancusi’s photographs is his magnum opus, the Colonne sans fin (Endless Column). Different iterations of the sculpture are photographed while installed in Brancusi’s studio, at Târgu Jiu in Romania, and in Edward Steichen’s garden at Voulangis in France.  Often positioning the camera at the base of the sculpture looking up, Brancusi’s photographic works on Endless Column accentuate the sublime nature of the sculpture while also documenting the site-specificity of its myriad installations.

Brancusi: The Photographer marks the 30th anniversary of the exhibition Brancusi: Photographs, which was the inaugural show at Paul Kasmin Gallery upon its opening in 1989.

KASMIN GALLERY
293 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10001
www.kasmingallery.com

Impasse Ronsin @ Paul Kasmin Gallery, NYC

Impasse Ronsin
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
October 28, 2016 - January 14, 2017

Paul Kasmin Gallery announces the forthcoming exhibition, Impasse Ronsin, which will be on view at 515 West 27th Street from October 28th – December 23rd, 2016.  Taking as its focus the historic Parisian alley once home to the studios of Constantin Brancusi, William N. Copley, Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Les Lalanne, Larry Rivers, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and numerous other seminal 20th-century artists, the exhibition will include work by these artists in an elaborate installation designed to embody the collaborative atmosphere of the Impasse Ronsin.

At the heart of the original Impasse Ronsin complex, as well as in this exhibition, stands Constantin Brancusi, who moved into the Impasse in 1916 and would remain there until his death in 1957. During those forty-one years, countless seminal artists made the pilgrimage to the Impasse Ronsin in hopes of meeting the artist, whom Marcel Duchamp famously referred to as “The Queen Mother of the Impasse Ronsin” .  The exhibition will feature a bronze edition of Princess X, one of Brancusi’s most iconic forms, as well as a selection of the artist’s vintage photographs depicting the studio and its contents.  Brancusi’s studio as it was arranged at the time of his death was later meticulously reconstructed opposite the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where it has been open to the public since 1997.

From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Impasse Ronsin was an area closely associated with Dada and Surrealism.  While neither had permanent studios in the Impasse, both Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp were fixtures at the complex.  Included in the exhibition is a vintage photograph of Brancusi and his dogs taken at the Impasse by Man Ray, as well as an original set of Duchamp’s “Rotoreliefs” and his film Anemic Cinema, 1926, in which they were used.

This Surrealist spirit would remain at Ronsin through the 1950s and 1960s, when artists such as William N. Copley, Max Ernst and Les Lalanne would inhabit studios.  Max Ernst’s Dancers Under the Starry Sky, 1951, a painting aptly characteristic of this spirit, will be on view for the first time in sixty-four years.  Also executed in 1951 is William N. Copley’s Steroptic Nude, one of the artist’s most important early paintings and last exhibited in the artist’s 1980 retrospective at the Kunsthalle Bern.  The renowned collaborative duo Francois-Xavier Lalanne and his wife Claude Lalanne first met at the Impasse Ronsin in 1952, where iconic works such as Mouton de Laine and Choupatte were initially conceived, and which will be included in the exhibition.

More than anything else, collaboration and perpetual dialogue defined the Impasse Ronsin. In 1961, it was the locale in which Niki de Saint Phalle famously staged her “Shooting Paintings” with the help of Jean Tinguely, Yves Klein and Pierre Restany.  On view in Impasse Ronsin will be Tir (Fragment de Dracula II), 1961 – one of the most substantial and important works from the series.  Also included is Turning Friendship Model from the same year – a kinetic sculpture made by Larry Rivers with the help of Jean Tinguely.

In the rear gallery The Noguchi Museum will create an installation that evokes the ‘Brancusi-like’ studio Isamu Noguchi established just south of Paris, in Gentily, in 1927, after serving as the Romanian’s assistant. As the only artist to have come out of Brancusi’s studio, Noguchi’s insights into that Modernist Eden of ambiguity- where traditional craft met the avant-garde, object became indistinguishable from base, and art was life-are of particular interest.

The cooperative, convivial environment of the Impasse Ronsin has never been adequately articulated in the history of 20th-century art, but today, with sprawling artist communities thriving in Beijing, Berlin, Brooklyn, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, etc., its story has never been more relevant.

A comprehensive monograph including an essay by Jerôme Neutres, extensive archival images and texts, and a selection of interviews conducted by independent curator and art historian Adrian Dannatt will accompany the exhibition.

PAUL KASMIN GALLERY
http://paulkasmingallery.com

Brancusi, Rosso, Man Ray - Framing Sculpture, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Brancusi, Rosso, Man Ray - Framing Sculpture
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Through May 11, 2014

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen brings together works from all over the world by three artists who were decisive for the development of modern art: Constantin Brancusi, Medardo Rosso and Man Ray. This is the first exhibition to combine works by these famous sculptors together with their photographs, affording a unique insight into the artists’ working methods.

Masterpieces that have rarely or never been seen in the Netherlands will be lent by important museums such as the Centre Pompidou, MoMA and Tate Modern. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will show 40 sculptures and more than 60 photographs by Constantin Brancusi (Hobiţa 1876 - Paris 1957), Medardo Rosso (Turin 1858 - Milan 1928) and Man Ray (Philadelphia 1890 - Paris 1976). The exhibition features sculptures such as Brancusi’s ‘Bird in Space’ (1941) and Rosso’s ‘Ecce Puer’ (1906) alongside works by Man Ray from the museum’s collection, including the sculpture ‘The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse’ (1920/1971). Presenting the sculptures together with the artists’ photographs reveals their often-surprising perspectives on their own works.

Framing sculpture

All three artists lived in Paris at the beginning of the 20t th century and all three documented their own sculptures extensively through photography. The photographs show how they interpreted their sculptures and how they wanted them to be seen by others. Constantin Brancusi is considered the father of modern sculpture with his highly simplified sculptures of people and animals. In his photographs he experimented with light and reflection so that his sculptures absorb their environment and appear to come to life. Medardo Rosso is the artist who introduced impressionism in sculpture. The indistinct contours of his apparently quickly modelled figures in plaster and wax make them appear to fuse with their surroundings. Rosso cut up the soft-focus photographs of his work, made them into collages and reworked them with ink so that the sculptures appear even flatter and more contourless. Man Ray is best known as a photographer but was also a painter and sculptor. His choice of materials was unconventional: he combined existing objects to create new works, comparable to the ‘readymades’ of his friend Marcel Duchamp. Man Ray’s experimental use of photography led him to make photographs without the use of a camera. He made these so-called ‘rayographs’ by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing them briefly to light, leaving behind a ghostly impression.

Through the eyes of the artist 

The photographs of Brancusi, Rosso and Man Ray give the public the opportunity to see the sculptures through the artists’ own eyes. Three multimedia presentations, including projections and animations, will use modern digital techniques to replicate the artists’ explorations of form.

Museum Boijmans
Museumpark 18, 3015 CX, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
www.boijmans.nl