That Sculpted Space

I WAS ALREADY A FAN OF ABSTRACT SCULPTURE when I visited the Brancusi studio in Paris, but doing so inspired me on a new level. Just a cartwheel away from the Centre Georges Pompidou, the art gallery is an exact recreation of the artist’s atelier, where he lived and worked from 1904 until his death in 1957.

The studio houses a collection of over a thousand items, including 137 sculptures and 87 bases. Among them are the elegant Tête de Narcisse, the highly geometric Colonnes sans Fin, the abstracted golden Leda, a few Mlle Poganys, and a number of Le Coqs.

While the sculptures are notable works on their own, their meticulous arrangement within the studio heightens the experience of them. Brancusi actually stopped creating sculptures towards the end of his life, instead focusing on how the works are grouped in their spaces. He called them “mobile groups” and revised their positions daily, resulting in a studio that served not only as a place of work, but a work of art in its own right.

Brancusi's influence in my own home:

My own flat increasingly reflects Brancusi's influence, through primitive carvings, and vases inspired by abstract sculpture. I don't re-group them daily as Brancusi did with his works, but I reposition them often enough to derive new experiences from their arrangement.

Atelier Brancusi, Paris, centrepompidou.fr Photos by Lady San Pedro.