Since everything has been online for so long I began looking through previous exhibition visits and came across these images from my last visit to New York – so long ago!
I find myself comforted by the purity of Constantin Brancusi, seen at MoMA in a room devoted to his work.
There is a short video about him on the MoMA website showing Fish in motion. Click here to watch it.
You can see that the relationship between plinth and sculpture is important. It can be dramatic as above, or more controlled as below, with careful consideration of the materials selected.
Above on the left is Bird in Space of which several were produced.
It was famously not considered a work of art by US customs in 1926 who saw it as a lump of metal therefore subject to duty. The case went to court (well it had to, didn’t it) and Bird in Space was eventually permitted to enter the USA as art, not as an industrial item.
