Rare photographs by Constantin Brâncuși to go on display in Romania’s Târgu Jiu

An exhibition featuring 33 rare photographs taken by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși will open at Pavilion Art 360 in Târgu Jiu on October 22. Titled Brâncuși. Photography. The Invisible Studio, it will remain open until December 16.

Presented in Târgu Jiu for the first time, the photographs come from the collection of British collector David Grob, considered one of the leading private collections of Brâncuși photography. Grob is expected to attend the opening.

Constantin Brâncuși photographed his own sculptures and studio and developed the images in a darkroom built inside his workspace on Impasse Ronsin in Paris. The exhibition includes self-portraits, photographs of sculptures, studio scenes, and still lifes, alongside films made in the artist’s studio.

Visitors will also see early images of the Endless Column installed at Voulangis near Paris, as well as photographs taken by Brâncuși in Târgu Jiu of the column and the monumental ensemble created there in 1937-1938.

“These photographs were long regarded as mere footnotes to his sculpture,” said exhibition curator and art historian Eduard Enache. “Today, we read them as the language through which Brâncuși speaks to us about his own work; I would even say that they are the studio itself, continued in another medium.”

Enache said the Grob collection was particularly significant because it began taking shape in the 1970s, before Constantin Brâncuși’s photographs were widely regarded as artworks in their own right.

“Some of these images were taken in Târgu Jiu and are now returning here after almost 90 years, to the place where the thinking of the studio left the enclosed space and met the sky,” he added.

The exhibition is curated by Eduard Enache, with Brâncuși scholar Doina Lemny serving as scientific consultant. Its opening will precede the UNESCO-patronised international conference The Philosophy of Form, which will bring Constantin Brâncuși specialists from around the world to Târgu Jiu for four days.

The exhibition will be open at Pavilion Art 360 from Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 17:00.