Constantin Brancusi, La Négresse blonde (The Blond Negress), 1926

Constantin Brancusi
La Négresse blonde (The Blond Negress), 1926

Fusing the traditions of classical sculpture with Romanian, African, Egyptian, and, later, even industrial forms, Brancusi’s groundbreaking works introduced abstraction and primitivism into sculptural practice. They were as important to the development of Modernism as the paintings of Pablo Picasso.

Brancusi’s sculptural vocabulary consisted of relatively few highly distilled forms, one of the most significant being the ovoid or egg shape that is the basis for La Négress blonde. The title of the work makes reference to an African woman Brancusi had met in Marseilles. The perfect, upturned ovoid serves as the woman’s head. Her distinguishing features are reduced to a pair of full lips, a chignon, and a zigzag ornament at the back of the neck, perhaps denoting a scarf or the lower part of her coiffure. The sculpture’s pedestal comprises a cylinder, a Greek cross, and a plinth that can be read as the woman’s body, shoulders, and neck. The bronze portion of the sculpture, however, can also be interpreted as the body of a golden fish, the top and rear embellishments becoming its dorsal and tail fins. The highly polished surface allows the viewer to contemplate the contrast between the simplicity of the sculpture and the complexity of his or her own reflection.

In attempting to capture the “essence of things,” Brancusi broke with the Western tradition of representing the world in a realistic manner and paved the way for twentieth-century sculptural abstraction. His work was radical for its time, and when detractors refused to consider it art, his friend and peer Marcel Duchamp came to his defense, arguing, “To say that the sculpture of Brancusi is not art is like saying an egg is not an egg.”

Artwork Info

Artwork title: La Négresse blonde (The Blond Negress)
Artist name: Constantin Brancusi
Date created: 1926
Classification: sculpture
Medium: bronze, marble, and limestone
Dimensions: 70 3/4 in. × 10 3/4 in. × 10 3/4 in. (179.71 cm × 27.31 cm × 27.31 cm)

Date acquired: 1958
Credit: Collection SFMOMA
Gift of Agnes E. Meyer and Elise S. Haas
Copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Permanent URL: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/58.4382.A-C
Artwork status: Not on view at this time.

How did Brancusi’s artworks change the law?

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SFX: 1920’s port sounds fade in, boats, seagulls, bustling market comes in under next paragraph; a pair of footsteps stands out amongst the rest.

NARRATOR:

This is La Négresse blonde. Constantin Brancusi made it after spotting a statuesque woman in the South of France. As far as anyone knows, he didn’t know her. Or even meet her. But he remembered her. And he distilled his memories into the shapes you see here. He carved the black marble stand too, and the white block underneath – it’s all part of the artwork.

SFX: Courtroom sounds, people milling, judge’s gavel.

NARRATOR:

His sculptures were so unlike anything else, they actually launched a famous court case. See, the law said in order to qualify as a sculpture, artwork had to imitate reality.

JUDGE:

When you say you consider that a work of art, will you kindly tell me why?

EPSTEIN:

Well, it pleases my sense of beauty, gives me a feeling of pleasure. [fades under narration] Made by a sculptor, it has, to me, a great many elements, but consists in itself as a beautiful object.

NARRATOR (comes in over top of testimony):

Here’s what happened. In 1926, Brancusi shipped 20 of his sculptures to the U.S.

SFX: Shipping crates being opened

NARRATOR:

When Customs agents opened the crates, they were baffled by his mysterious disks and marble blocks. So they categorized Brancusi’s art as “Kitchen Utensils and Hospital Supplies. “ That forced the artist into paying huge import fees. He was furious, and sued the U.S. government, forcing a judge to rule on what constitutes art.

SFX: Sounds of courtroom continuing from under narration

NARRATOR:

After hours of testimony, the Judge decided in Brancusi’s favor.

SFX: Judge’s gavel – tap tap!

JUDGE:

Whether or not we are in sympathy with these newer ideas, we think that the facts of their existence and their influence on the art world must be considered. Let judgment be entered accordingly.

transcripts

NARRATOR:

This is La Négresse blonde, a bronze, marble, and limestone sculpture made in 1926 by Constantin Brancusi. It’s an abstract sculpture of a woman made up of three geometric shapes: a polished brass oval on top, a black marble “x” shape in the middle, and supporting them both a rectangular limestone cube. The sculpture stands nearly six feet high and is about a foot deep and a foot wide. The sculpture is the height of a tall woman. The focal point is the shiny, bronze, egg-shaped head. The surface is so highly polished, it acts like a mirror, reflecting your own image back at you. The area where you would normally find a face is sleek, blank, and smooth. There are no eyes, no nose. About a third of the way from the bottom, two horizontal forms stick out, resembling a set of full lips.

The egg-shaped head is capped with another smaller oval about the size of a fist. It looks like a woman’s hair pulled into a very tight bun. If you walk around the sculpture, a wavy, triangular form emerges from the back of the head, where a low ponytail might be. It resembles a fish’s tail.

The bronze head perches on a glossy, black marble “x.” The marble appears slick and slippery. The black marble x in turn rests flat on a tall, rough-hewn, solid white block that forms the lower third of the sculpture. If you touched that limestone base, it would feel a little rough, like concrete.

Brancusi’s streamlined shapes and unconventional materials confused many people of his day.

Artwork Info

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