Brancusi Cameo

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

Colors a bit off, but not affecting the sculpture

As in all titles in the Great Modern Masters series published by Abrams: Colors are not vibrant, often with a brownish tint or/and too dark, and their accuracy is just O.K., but not affecting sculpture. There are 64 pages of a good size 9.5x12 inches (24x30.5 cm). It begins with an introduction with 5-6 small b & w pictures on 2 pages, which is followed by a biography with 5-6 small b & w pictures on 2 next pages. The rest is dedicated to good size over 60 full color plates divided into chapters dedicated to artist's carrier periods, style directions, or themes, each described by 12-16 lines of text. The series is inferior to the same size paperback series published by Taschen in 1990s, but superior to Taschen's series of smaller sizes published latter. Unfortunately, the Taschen series does not cover Bacon, Botero, Brancusi, Braque, Calder, de Chirico, Johns, Kokoschka, Leger, Man Ray, Malevich, Modigliani, and Rouault this series does.

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.