Brancusi Cameo (Great Modern Masters)

By Jose Maria Faerna

Documents the life and work of the 20th-century Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brancusi, and includes photographs of his studio and work taken by himself. Although considered a pioneer of abstract art, Brancusi claimed only to simplify shapes and to strip them of realistic detail.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810946939
• ISBN13: 9780810946934
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.8" x 12.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Adequate text, excellent photos

This is a good, brief overview of Brancusi's life and work that features magnificent photographs of all of the significant pieces in his oeuvre, a modest biography, brief explanations of his inspirations, technique and subject matter, and fairly detailed descriptions of his most popular sculptures and structures. While the text is nothing more or less than adequate, the photos tell the informed viewer more about the sculptor and his work than any clumsily literal narrative ever could. Regardless of whether his renderings referenced the mundane or the elevated, Brancusi conveyed more about the fundamental aspects of said subjects by rendering them as simple, elegant shapes than most of his classical predecessors could ever have aspired to. His legacy consists of a body of work that is as much a celebration of human intuition as it is a testament to what can be accomplished by the artist who makes a goal of perfection - and quite frequently comes very close to achieving it. The quality of this book's content easily rivals that of volumes that are twice as thick and three times as expensive. I only wish that it wasn't out of print.