Rodin and Brancusi

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, within the works and minds of Auguste Rodin and of Constantin Brancusi, there is more similarity than their works might appear at first to offer. It hypothesizes how there had to be a Rodin before there could be a Brancusi and how, without Rodin's odd sculptures, such as "The Thinker", Brancusi would not have had the art world's "permission" to severely edit the forms of his work.

From the Paper:

"Two of his many bird sculptures reveal how even his minimalism a concept not yet identified as such, but surely advanced by Brancusi nonetheless, became more essential as he refined his art. Golden Bird merely suggests physical details: "The high polish of the metal mirrors the surrounding space, integrating the object and its setting with unprecedented intensity" (Art Institute of Chicago Web site). Bird, more simply named and more elegantly crafted, removes all suggestion of "birdness" from the sculpture, reducing "birdness" to the mere gesture of flight caught in a single, sweeping bright object that, without its name, would still convey a feeling of soaring."

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