As Luxfx pointed out a few days ago, the sculpture from Thursday’s post is by Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). It is called ‘Endless Column’and is located in Târgu-Jiu, Romania.
Once upon a time I was adamantly against Brancusi. However, a few years ago I read that he designed ‘Bird in Space’ by taking a long photograph exposure of a plucked guitar string and then reproducing this as static sculpture. This is a beautiful idea.
‘Endless Column’ is not my favorite, but I find it fascinating that it was almost built as a functional skyscraper in the United States. Instead of the 'Windy City', Chicago could be called 'Intestine Town'...
Bird in Space is how I know about Brancusi. There was a photograph of it in one of our high school literature books, and I immediately fell for the smooth curves. Since then, I've considered it my favorite sculpture. I hadn't heard that about the guitar string!
I did an essay in college on Bird in Space as part of an assignment on capturing the essence of motion in a static object. I found out that what we know as Bird in Space is one of many sculptures on the same concept. Take a look.
Posted by: LuxFX at October 10, 2005 12:41 AMI tried to find an online reference for the guitar string, but I had no success. I read about this in one of the required books for a Sources-in-Architecture class, which I took in my 3rd or 4th year at Blacksburg.
The class focused on the root and foundation that designers draw from to generate or process their ideas. The class also had a heavy Architect focus/spin, so the subject matter was a little off of the beaten path from a strait art history or art theory class.
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From your link: I think that I have seen the sculpture on the left...only it was in brass. And when I saw Bird-in-Space, it was stone. Why would he do the same sculpture so many times with so little change?...lol
