Modern Sculpture, Essence and Difference: Reflections on the Work of Constantin Brâncuşi

Bringing together new research and creative responses that engage with Brâncuşi’s position in twentieth-century art and culture.
How has the work of Constantin Brâncuşi shaped our perception of modern sculpture? How do social constructions of difference - of class, gender, race, and nationalism - manifest in his work? How has a critical heritage dedicated to understanding Brâncuşi’s pursuit of sculptural ‘essences’ warped and limited scholarly understanding of his oeuvre and its early twentieth-century context? How have notions of alterity, repetition, assimilation, and sequence been explored in responses to his work? What critical frameworks can help us understand Brancusi’s social and imaginative tactics, such as his control of the photographic representation of his work, his self-presentation as Romanian peasant, and his preoccupation with folklore? How can we build on the scholarship of Anna Chave, Alex Potts, John Warne Munroe, and Yaëlle Biro to better situate the full range of signification in Brâncuşi’s work within current movements of cultural history, critical theory, anthropology and philosophy? How can artists practicing today draw from or react against Brâncuşi’s example? What is Brâncuşi ’s continuing relevance to those looking to innovate in sculptural techniques and processes, including working in direct carving, print making, casting. installation, with hand tools, in studios, and domestic spaces?
These are some of the questions that this Early Career Research symposium will seek to answer through a programme of academic papers and creative responses.
Welcome and Introduction to the day
Dr Ketty Gottardo (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Jonathan Vernon (independent)
Brancusi and Post-War Sculpture
Chaired by Dr Sean Ketteringham (Henry Moore Institute)
[Paper Unavailable] Chiara Pazzaglia (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa/Université Paris Nanterre)
‘Târgu Jiu: a Prototype for the Post-War Modernist Monument?’
Valentina Bartelesi (Archivio del Moderno, Balerna, Switzerland)
‘‘Decentralization’, ‘Disjunctiveness’, and the ‘Unseen’: The Reception of Brâncuşi’s Sculpture in North American Art Criticism Between the 1960s and 1970s’
Brancusi and Materiality
Chaired by Dr Lisa Newby (Henry Moore Foundation)
Stefano Agresti, (Fondazione Ettore Spalletti/Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’)
‘‘Sculpture is Nothing but Water’: The Sculptural Object is Transitional and Receptive Body in Constantin Brâncuşi and Ettore Spalletti’s Works’
Ella McCartney (artist/Goldsmiths University)
‘Encountering Sculpture as Image’
Panel 3: Brancusi, Essence and Difference
Chaired by Dr Jonathan Vernon
Lana Locke (artist/Camberwell College of Arts)
‘Responding to Brâncuşi: Bodily Abstractions and Challenging Verticality’
Chase Pendleton, (independent)
‘Constantin Brâncuşi After Transgender Studies’
Michal Sobanski (Sorbonne Université Paris)
‘Brâncuşi’s Dream of a Flight. The Impossibilities of an Inhibited Form’
Artists in Conversation introduced by Dr Clare O’Dowd (Henry Moore Institute)
Hannah Hughes and Lucy Skaer
Chaired by Dr Rosalind McKever (Victoria & Albert Museum)