This is what I want
Our eye follows slowly the Endless Column by Constantin Brancusi. From the middle of the column I look slowly upwards. Then my eye follows the widenings and narrowings downwards. Now I have seen the pillar and yet I would like to watch it again.
I see that all the surfaces have a different color because of the sunshine and the shadow. Two areas seem to have the same colour. On the others I see a light side and a shadow side. The gold colors are hypnotizing me.
It's hard to imagine that this sleek column can remain standing. This column is that long that it s seems to touch the heaven. Here and now while we are looking at it. This column is continues working while we are looking at it only a few minutes. It's an extraordinary experience to witness the pillar that is reaching to the heaven and is maybe even touching it.
This is what I want. I would be light and thin and touch the heaven. Standing on this earth and also touching the heaven. And then I would radiate a golden glow. Although this would last only a few moments and stay always in my memory.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
Dit zou ik willen
Ons oog volgt langzaam de Endless Column van Constantin Brancusi. Vanaf het midden van de zuil kijk ik langzaam omhoog. Dan volgt mijn oog ook de verbredingen en versmallingen weer naar beneden. Nu heb ik de pilaar gezien en toch wil ik het nog een keer zien.
Ik zie dat de vlakken allen een andere kleuren hebben door het zonlicht en de schaduw. Twee vlakken lijken dezelfde kleur te hebben. Bij de andere zie ik een belichte en beschaduwde zijde. De gouden kleuren hypnotiseren mij.
Het is haast ondenkbaar dat deze slanke zuil kan blijven staan. Deze zuil is zo lang dat het de hemel lijkt aan te raken. Hier en nu terwijl wij ernaar kijken. Deze zuil doet continu zijn werk terwijl wij er maar enkele minuten naar kijken. Het is een bijzondere ervaring om getuige te zijn van de zuil die naar de hemel reikt en misschien wel aanraakt.
Dit zou ik willen. Ik zou licht en slank willen zijn en de hemel willen aanraken. Op deze aarde staan en ook de hemel aanraken. En dan zou ik een gouden warme gloed willen uitstralen. Al zou dit maar enkele ogenblikken duren en er altijd zijn in mijn geheugen.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.wikipedia.org:
Endless Column symbolizes the concept of infinity and the infinite sacrifice of the Romanian soldiers. The incomplete top unit is thought to be the element that expresses the concept of the infinite.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
This blog post explores Constantin Br ncu?i s famous sculpture the Endless Column as part of an exploration into Romanian culture and art.Constantin Br ncu?i was born in 1876 in the Romanian village Hobi?a, not far from the town where the sculptural ensemble stands today.
He was born into a peasant family that had a strong connection to the crafts tradition of the area. Thus, Br ncu?i used wooden farm tools and displayed an aptitude for carving with wood from a young age. Wood carving was famous in the area as part of the local folk-craft, used architecturally and varying repeated shapes and patterns. Br ncu?i was influenced by traditional Romanian folk-craft and nourished this style in his work throughout his life as an artist.
Br ncu?i fled from an unsettled home life at the age of 11; formal studies in art first took him to Bucharest, then on to Munich, then finally to the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he later settled.
His final grand masterpiece and most famous monument the Endless Column was commissioned by the National League of the Romanian Women of the Gorj in 1935. Br ncu?i refused to receive payment for it (Parigoras, 2002), instead he welcomed the opportunity to create this large commemorative sculpture in his homeland, and work began on the sculpture in 1937.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
Br ncu?i made several versions of The Endless Column, originally carving a prototype out of oak, before he fully developed the monument to its final form (MoMA, 2014). The evolution of the column at first took many forms, focussing on the base and the column as a pedestal before it developed into a sculpture (Lanchner, 2012, p.15).
In 1920 Br ncu?i carved a version just under 24 feet tall, a nine-module wood column, which was set up in the garden of the photographer Edward Steichen (Geist, p.76). The design consists of a single symmetrical element, a pair of truncated pyramids stuck together at their base, and then repeated to produce a continuous rhythmic line (MoMA). It is said to be structurally based on repetition of a rhomboid module whose ratio, carefully selected by Br ncu?i, is 1:2:4 (Miller, 1980, p.473).
The elevation consists of fifteen such identical rhomboid beads, flanked at either end by half modules performing the most staggering optical illusion, (Miller, 1980, p.473) whereby the column appears to intertwine with the sky, ascending into infinity. Whilst replicating this same abstract shape, Br ncu?i emphasized the possibility of vertical expansion it was, he later said, a column for infinity (MoMA).
The Column is a symbol of the means of ascension to heaven for the souls of the soldiers, and, as Br ncu?i himself stated, a way to sustain the vault of heaven (Lanchner, 2010, p.6).
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
The monument was inaugurated, in iron, on the 27th October 1938. It stands in T rgu Jiu in Romania, as a memorial for the young Romanian soldiers who died defending the town against German forces in the First World War. The location marks the place along the River Jiu where the young men died fighting.
At the heart of the tripartite ensemble is the Column, a 30-metre high column of zinc and brass-clad, cat iron modules. The column stands alongside the Gate of the Kiss and the Table of Silence. For nearly two kilometres the ensemble leads on in procession continuing through the town.
The Column is the culminating element of a linear group, standing on a low hill above the town (Gormley, 2009). Often termed the Column of the Infinite, it symbolizes the Infinite Sacrifice of the Romanian soldiers. It was initially intended to commemorate the First World War and by implication became a war memorial to both World Wars, it holds high cultural significance for the town and nationally in commemoration of the war in Romania.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
Br ncu?i used natural forms in his work, mainly the shapes of a head, eggs, birds and columns, they were then reduced down to simple shapes almost to the point of abstraction. Using either wood or stone he reinstated the ancient technique of direct carving as a tool for modern artists, employing both smooth surfaces that evoke classical traditions and rough-hewn surfaces that look back to primitive art and the folk art of Romania.
The industrial production and construction of the column references the location which was previously an area heavily industrialized in coal mining. Br ncu?i was concerned about the architecture and the surrounding space. He took the vision of the location, the natural environment, and incorporated it into the integral essence of the piece. It is in this that we see the environment with great significance for the Column:
The Jiu river, which runs between these two towns, through a high ravine with endless meanders, is the central axis of Br ncu?i s hinterland. A number of entities stand out: The world of metal, and Petrosani s mechanical workshops, where, in 1937, the Endless Column was produced, and in 2001 its clone; the world of coal, in the neighbouring town of Petrila, whose mine goes down almost a kilometre into the earth as a sort of mirror image of the Endless Column; the world of river stones in the Jiu valley, whose spanning by the railway in 1948 was the great patriotic project of communist Romania; and the world of wood and vernacular architecture. (Saussier, 2012).
www.wikipedia.org:
The Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Br ncu?i at T rgu Jiu (Romanian: Ansamblul sculptural Constantin Br ncu?i de la T rgu-Jiu) is an homage to the Romanian heroes of the First World War. The ensemble comprises three sculptures: The Table of Silence (Masa t?cerii), The Gate of the Kiss (Poarta s?rutului), and the Endless Column (Coloana f?r? sf r?it) on an axis 1.3 km (3?4 mile) long, oriented west to east. The ensemble is considered to be one of the great works of 20th-century outdoor sculpture.
The monument was commissioned by the National League of Gorj Women to honor those soldiers who had defended T rgu Jiu in 1916 from the forces of the Central Powers. Constantin Br ncu?i (1876 1957) was at the time living in Paris, but welcomed the opportunity to create a large commemorative sculpture in his homeland. He accepted the commission in 1935, but refused to receive payment for it.
www.wikipedia.org:
The Endless Column stacks 15 rhomboidal modules, with a half-unit at the top and bottom, making a total of 16. Br ncu?i had experimented with this form as early as 1918, with an oak version now found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The modules were made in the central workshop of Petro?ani (Atelierele Centrale Petro?ani), assembled by Br ncu?i's friend engineer ?tefan Georgescu-Gorjan (1905 1985), and completed on 27 October 1938. All 16 rhomboidal modules accumulate a total height f 29.3 m. www.wikipedia.org:
Constantin Br ncu?i (Romanian: [konstan?tin br???ku??] ?; February 19, 1876 March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism, Br ncu?i is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child, he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Br ncu?i sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Andr Derain, and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.
www.wikipedia.org:
In the 1950s, the Romanian communist government planned to demolish the column and turn it into scrap metal, but this plan was never executed. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the fall of the Communist regime, there was renewed interest in restoring the column, which by that time suffered from tilting, cracking, metal corrosion, and an unstable foundation. For these reasons the site was listed in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. The restoration was facilitated by the Fund, which organized meetings for the stakeholders in 1998 and provided funding through American Express. Subsequently, the site was restored between 1998 and 2000 through a collaborative effort of the Romanian Government, the World Monuments Fund, the World Bank, and other Romanian and international groups. www.wikipedia.org:
Br ncu?i on his own work:
"There are idiots who define my work as abstract; yet what they call abstract is what is most realistic. What is real is not the appearance, but the idea, the essence of things." "I ground matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized I could not find it, I stopped, as if an unseen someone had slapped my hands." "For art to be free and universal, you must create like a god, command like a king and execute like a slave."
Our eye follows slowly the Endless Column by Constantin Brancusi. From the middle of the column I look slowly upwards. Then my eye follows the widenings and narrowings downwards. Now I have seen the pillar and yet I would like to watch it again.
I see that all the surfaces have a different color because of the sunshine and the shadow. Two areas seem to have the same colour. On the others I see a light side and a shadow side. The gold colors are hypnotizing me.
It's hard to imagine that this sleek column can remain standing. This column is that long that it s seems to touch the heaven. Here and now while we are looking at it. This column is continues working while we are looking at it only a few minutes. It's an extraordinary experience to witness the pillar that is reaching to the heaven and is maybe even touching it.
This is what I want. I would be light and thin and touch the heaven. Standing on this earth and also touching the heaven. And then I would radiate a golden glow. Although this would last only a few moments and stay always in my memory.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
Dit zou ik willen
Ons oog volgt langzaam de Endless Column van Constantin Brancusi. Vanaf het midden van de zuil kijk ik langzaam omhoog. Dan volgt mijn oog ook de verbredingen en versmallingen weer naar beneden. Nu heb ik de pilaar gezien en toch wil ik het nog een keer zien.
Ik zie dat de vlakken allen een andere kleuren hebben door het zonlicht en de schaduw. Twee vlakken lijken dezelfde kleur te hebben. Bij de andere zie ik een belichte en beschaduwde zijde. De gouden kleuren hypnotiseren mij.
Het is haast ondenkbaar dat deze slanke zuil kan blijven staan. Deze zuil is zo lang dat het de hemel lijkt aan te raken. Hier en nu terwijl wij ernaar kijken. Deze zuil doet continu zijn werk terwijl wij er maar enkele minuten naar kijken. Het is een bijzondere ervaring om getuige te zijn van de zuil die naar de hemel reikt en misschien wel aanraakt.
Dit zou ik willen. Ik zou licht en slank willen zijn en de hemel willen aanraken. Op deze aarde staan en ook de hemel aanraken. En dan zou ik een gouden warme gloed willen uitstralen. Al zou dit maar enkele ogenblikken duren en er altijd zijn in mijn geheugen.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.wikipedia.org:
Endless Column symbolizes the concept of infinity and the infinite sacrifice of the Romanian soldiers. The incomplete top unit is thought to be the element that expresses the concept of the infinite.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
This blog post explores Constantin Br ncu?i s famous sculpture the Endless Column as part of an exploration into Romanian culture and art.Constantin Br ncu?i was born in 1876 in the Romanian village Hobi?a, not far from the town where the sculptural ensemble stands today.
He was born into a peasant family that had a strong connection to the crafts tradition of the area. Thus, Br ncu?i used wooden farm tools and displayed an aptitude for carving with wood from a young age. Wood carving was famous in the area as part of the local folk-craft, used architecturally and varying repeated shapes and patterns. Br ncu?i was influenced by traditional Romanian folk-craft and nourished this style in his work throughout his life as an artist.
Br ncu?i fled from an unsettled home life at the age of 11; formal studies in art first took him to Bucharest, then on to Munich, then finally to the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he later settled.
His final grand masterpiece and most famous monument the Endless Column was commissioned by the National League of the Romanian Women of the Gorj in 1935. Br ncu?i refused to receive payment for it (Parigoras, 2002), instead he welcomed the opportunity to create this large commemorative sculpture in his homeland, and work began on the sculpture in 1937.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
Br ncu?i made several versions of The Endless Column, originally carving a prototype out of oak, before he fully developed the monument to its final form (MoMA, 2014). The evolution of the column at first took many forms, focussing on the base and the column as a pedestal before it developed into a sculpture (Lanchner, 2012, p.15).
In 1920 Br ncu?i carved a version just under 24 feet tall, a nine-module wood column, which was set up in the garden of the photographer Edward Steichen (Geist, p.76). The design consists of a single symmetrical element, a pair of truncated pyramids stuck together at their base, and then repeated to produce a continuous rhythmic line (MoMA). It is said to be structurally based on repetition of a rhomboid module whose ratio, carefully selected by Br ncu?i, is 1:2:4 (Miller, 1980, p.473).
The elevation consists of fifteen such identical rhomboid beads, flanked at either end by half modules performing the most staggering optical illusion, (Miller, 1980, p.473) whereby the column appears to intertwine with the sky, ascending into infinity. Whilst replicating this same abstract shape, Br ncu?i emphasized the possibility of vertical expansion it was, he later said, a column for infinity (MoMA).
The Column is a symbol of the means of ascension to heaven for the souls of the soldiers, and, as Br ncu?i himself stated, a way to sustain the vault of heaven (Lanchner, 2010, p.6).
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
The monument was inaugurated, in iron, on the 27th October 1938. It stands in T rgu Jiu in Romania, as a memorial for the young Romanian soldiers who died defending the town against German forces in the First World War. The location marks the place along the River Jiu where the young men died fighting.
At the heart of the tripartite ensemble is the Column, a 30-metre high column of zinc and brass-clad, cat iron modules. The column stands alongside the Gate of the Kiss and the Table of Silence. For nearly two kilometres the ensemble leads on in procession continuing through the town.
The Column is the culminating element of a linear group, standing on a low hill above the town (Gormley, 2009). Often termed the Column of the Infinite, it symbolizes the Infinite Sacrifice of the Romanian soldiers. It was initially intended to commemorate the First World War and by implication became a war memorial to both World Wars, it holds high cultural significance for the town and nationally in commemoration of the war in Romania.
www.danubeonthames.wordpress.com:
Br ncu?i used natural forms in his work, mainly the shapes of a head, eggs, birds and columns, they were then reduced down to simple shapes almost to the point of abstraction. Using either wood or stone he reinstated the ancient technique of direct carving as a tool for modern artists, employing both smooth surfaces that evoke classical traditions and rough-hewn surfaces that look back to primitive art and the folk art of Romania.
The industrial production and construction of the column references the location which was previously an area heavily industrialized in coal mining. Br ncu?i was concerned about the architecture and the surrounding space. He took the vision of the location, the natural environment, and incorporated it into the integral essence of the piece. It is in this that we see the environment with great significance for the Column:
The Jiu river, which runs between these two towns, through a high ravine with endless meanders, is the central axis of Br ncu?i s hinterland. A number of entities stand out: The world of metal, and Petrosani s mechanical workshops, where, in 1937, the Endless Column was produced, and in 2001 its clone; the world of coal, in the neighbouring town of Petrila, whose mine goes down almost a kilometre into the earth as a sort of mirror image of the Endless Column; the world of river stones in the Jiu valley, whose spanning by the railway in 1948 was the great patriotic project of communist Romania; and the world of wood and vernacular architecture. (Saussier, 2012).
www.wikipedia.org:
The Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Br ncu?i at T rgu Jiu (Romanian: Ansamblul sculptural Constantin Br ncu?i de la T rgu-Jiu) is an homage to the Romanian heroes of the First World War. The ensemble comprises three sculptures: The Table of Silence (Masa t?cerii), The Gate of the Kiss (Poarta s?rutului), and the Endless Column (Coloana f?r? sf r?it) on an axis 1.3 km (3?4 mile) long, oriented west to east. The ensemble is considered to be one of the great works of 20th-century outdoor sculpture.
The monument was commissioned by the National League of Gorj Women to honor those soldiers who had defended T rgu Jiu in 1916 from the forces of the Central Powers. Constantin Br ncu?i (1876 1957) was at the time living in Paris, but welcomed the opportunity to create a large commemorative sculpture in his homeland. He accepted the commission in 1935, but refused to receive payment for it.
www.wikipedia.org:
The Endless Column stacks 15 rhomboidal modules, with a half-unit at the top and bottom, making a total of 16. Br ncu?i had experimented with this form as early as 1918, with an oak version now found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The modules were made in the central workshop of Petro?ani (Atelierele Centrale Petro?ani), assembled by Br ncu?i's friend engineer ?tefan Georgescu-Gorjan (1905 1985), and completed on 27 October 1938. All 16 rhomboidal modules accumulate a total height f 29.3 m. www.wikipedia.org:
Constantin Br ncu?i (Romanian: [konstan?tin br???ku??] ?; February 19, 1876 March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism, Br ncu?i is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child, he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Br ncu?i sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Andr Derain, and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.
www.wikipedia.org:
In the 1950s, the Romanian communist government planned to demolish the column and turn it into scrap metal, but this plan was never executed. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the fall of the Communist regime, there was renewed interest in restoring the column, which by that time suffered from tilting, cracking, metal corrosion, and an unstable foundation. For these reasons the site was listed in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. The restoration was facilitated by the Fund, which organized meetings for the stakeholders in 1998 and provided funding through American Express. Subsequently, the site was restored between 1998 and 2000 through a collaborative effort of the Romanian Government, the World Monuments Fund, the World Bank, and other Romanian and international groups. www.wikipedia.org:
Br ncu?i on his own work:
"There are idiots who define my work as abstract; yet what they call abstract is what is most realistic. What is real is not the appearance, but the idea, the essence of things." "I ground matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized I could not find it, I stopped, as if an unseen someone had slapped my hands." "For art to be free and universal, you must create like a god, command like a king and execute like a slave."