Blond Negress II
Constantin Brâncuși
Romanian and French, born Romania. 1876–1957
Paris 1933 (after a marble of 1928)
A small, gleaming bronze abstraction of a woman's head and shoulders in which Brâncuși reduced a sitter to smooth, ovoid volumes and paired it with a stacked pedestal of carved oak, limestone, and marble to make a single poetic image.
You first notice the mirror-like, egg-shaped golden head with only a hint of features perched like a jewel atop a rugged, blocky column of weathered wood and precisely cut stone, the contrast of surfaces and shapes creating a quiet tension.
The work crystallizes Brâncuși's modernist project of distilling form to its essence—marrying immaculate finish with humble materials—and helped open sculpture toward radical simplification and the elevation of everyday objects into symbolic presence.
Medium
Bronze 15 3/4" (40 cm) high, on four-part pedestal of marble 3 5/8" (9.1 cm) x 3 3/4" (9.4 cm) in diameter, limestone 9 7/8 x 14 5/8 x 14 1/8" (25 x 37.1 x 36.2 cm), and two oak sections (carved by the artist) 7 3/8 x 14 3/8 x 14 1/4" (18.6 x 36.3 x 36.2) and 35 1/2 x 11 x 11" (90.2 x 28 x 28 cm), overall 71 1/4 x 14 1/4 x 14 1/2" (181 x 36.2 x 36.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Philip L. Goodwin Collection
Accession
97.1958.a-e
Palette
Exhibitions
