Personal Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Constantin Brancusi
French, Romanian; 20th-century
St. Louis, MO: Pulitzer Arts Foundation
91%
Mademoiselle Pogany III. 1933. Polished bronze, limestone, and wood
The way this sculpture interacts with itself is almost like how rock-paper-scissors works: in every instance, affinities between any two of its components are undercut by something opposite about the third. The rectilinearity common to the wood and the limestone is negated by the sinuous effect of the bronze; the bronze and the stone share a smoothness that the wood base deletes; wood and bronze admit the empty space around them into their physiognomy, but the rock is hard and closed-off. On its own, each feature is immaculately formed, but together it's like they war with each other to define the essence of the overall artwork — this strife becomes the work’s "content.” Too, the forward thrust of the statue on top resolves the upward-moving stillness of both of its bases. (2024)