Brâncuși, Constantin

Constantin Brâncuși was born in Hobița, Romania, on February 19, 1876. He studied art at the Școala de Meserii in Craiova from 1894 to 1898 and at the Școala Națională de Arte Frumoase in Bucharest from 1898 to 1901. In 1904 Brâncuși left Romania for Paris where he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1905.

From 1907 until his death, he worked largely on his own, systematically forging an original modernist sculptural style. In 1935 the artist received an important public commission for a war memorial in Târgu Jiu, Romania. For this commission he designed a complex that included a ceremonial portal, tables, stools, and the sculpture known as the Endless Column.

In 1952, Brâncuși became a French citizen. He died in Paris on March 16, 1957. Brâncuși’s work has inspired a host of modern sculptors, from Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Isamu Noguchi (who worked as Brâncuși’s studio assistant in 1927) to Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin.