PLACES + THINGS - Atelier Brancusi
One of my favourite museums in Paris is tucked into a discreet building on the Southwest corner facing the Centre Pompidou. The artist, Constantin Brancusi gave the entire contents of his studio to the French state when he died, with one caveat, that they recreate the studio, placing each paper and sculpture exactly as it was when he died.
He believed the art was not only in the sculptures themselves, but that the space between them, their spatial relationship was integral to the art as well. He would move them, and again until he felt that the objects had reached their perfect place.
The Pompidou’s website says that when he sold a sculpture, he would replace it with a plaster copy so as to re-establish the unity in the space.
“Simplicity is complexity resolved”
And all his work is perfect in its balance: between raw and refined, heavy stone with a lightness in form, sophistication balanced with naïveté…complexity made simple.
The Architect charged to recreate the studio enclosed it in glass, like a work of art unto itself, so that visitors could walk around it and study it.
Each time I visit, I do. In each detail I like to think I can see, no…read like a secret letter in a shared language, the way he thought through the beauty he so purposefully created. Nothing was by happenstance, not unconsidered, and so he left us clues as to how he saw enduring beauty.
Practical Information:
Free access, from 2 to 6 p.m. every day except Tuesdays and 1st of May. On the piazza opposite the Centre Pompidou.
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/Collections/Brancusi-s-Studio