Works of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși drawing large crowds to Berlin museum
The works of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957) are drawing large crowds to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, according to an announcement by the museum cited by BZ Berlin.
The museum is currently hosting the first comprehensive Brâncuși exhibition organized in Germany for more than 50 years. The exhibition, scheduled until August 9, is already the most visited since the one dedicated to German painter Gerhard Richter, held in 2012.
The organization of the event was made possible due to the temporary closure for renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, one of the institutions holding the most important collection of the artist’s works. This context made it possible to borrow rare works and bring them together in a landmark exhibition in Berlin.
According to the museum, the exhibition will likely draw 300,000 visitors in total, confirming the international impact of the work of the artist born in Romania.
Brâncuși is considered the founder of modern sculpture. “His organic forms, reduced to their essence, established him as a pioneer of sculptural abstraction in the early 20th century. Brâncuși’s continuous search for an artistic ideal is reflected in the formal variations of a few central motifs and his playful use of different materials and surfaces. He masterfully employed pedestals, light, movement, as well as photography and film to stage his sculptures,” the institution said on its website.
“'Brâncuși' is one of the most important exhibitions in the history of the Neue Nationalgalerie,” said museum director Klaus Biesenbach. “We are grateful to be able to present this grand master of early modernism, who is surprisingly less well-known in Germany, to a truly large audience,” he added.
Given the high public interest, the museum decided to extend visiting hours during the final two days of the exhibition, on August 7 and 8. One ticket to the Brâncuși show costs EUR 16.
Constantin Brâncuși, born in Romania and later settled in France, is considered by historians and the world’s major museums as one of the founders of modern sculpture, having decisively influenced the evolution of contemporary art.
(Photo source: smb.museum)
