Constantin Brancusi

by Margit Rowell

"A great artist is never a closed subject, but this catalogue is a milestone production, as useful as it is beautiful." -- Norbert Lynton, The Art Book

Brancusi (Great Modern Masters)

by Constantin Brancusi

Each of these volumes is arranged into three sections. First, the artist is introduced in the context of his time. The second part is a biographical sketch, accompanied by photographs of the artist. The third section consists of excellently reproduced, full-color photographs of the artist's work, with descriptive text and an overview of his career. Some of the works are not often seen, and are a feast for the eye. The clear grouping of information and the handsome layout, page design, and typography make these books appealing and accessible, even though they have no indexes. The texts are presented in a straightforward manner that is easy to understand. Suitable for

Constantin Brancusi

by Eric Shanes

Shanes, a British painter and art historian, here reconciles the ``formal simplicity'' of Brancusi's (1876-1957) sculpture with its ``richness of meaning.'' He treats the works thematically, dividing them into categories, following their chronological development and illustrating his analysis with his own photographs of the sculptures. A chapter about ``The Natural World,'' for example, deals with the celebrated Bird in Space and Fish series. Although Brancusi's oeuvre lends itself well to this compartmentalized approach, the result is slightly fragmented. The last chapter fails to synthesize previous discussions, instead proffering generalities (``Brancusi elevated the idealism of Renaissance art to a new plane, creating a modern sculptural language in the process''). Some of the more challenging modernist issues operating in Brancusi's art--the polarities of real and ideal and abstraction vs. representation--are raised but not resolved. A chapter consisting of the artist's statements on art and a section about his techniques, however, round out the book nicely.