Lot Essay
Le Commencement du Monde was a pivotal work for Brancusi. It represents the ultimate expression of a series of sculptures inspired by the theme of birth and creation, carrying this body of work to its formal conclusion. The elegant ovoid shape perfectly illustrates the artist's love of form and quest for purity; and the clarity and smoothness of its physical outline is again distinctive of his work. In many senses it achieves exactly what he had hoped: to create 'an art of our own', human in its dimensions, secular, and by its calm and humour, expressing joy.
"Infatigable et minutieux explorateur du monde organique, Brancusi n'avançait qu'avec prudence vers la concentration, l'abstraction suprêmes. Il faut l'avoir vu relever le moindre détail, observer sans cesse les milles connexions, les phénomènes, les lois les plus secrètes de la nature pour s'en rendre compte. Aussi avait-il beau réduire la complexité de la vie à la simplicité d'une forme primaire, elle n'en conservait pas moins, jusque dans l'abstraction la plus hardie, une évidente, une inaltérable beauté naturelle" (C. Giedion-Welcker, Constantin Brancusi, Basle, 1958, p. 27). Brancusi's works as a whole possess a staggering sense of unity, evolving gradually as if part of an organic process. Le Commencement du Monde marks a high point of this development, having evolved from a series of transformations and variations based upon a single, natural form. Brancusi once told Ezra Pound that 'all my sculptures date fifteen years back' and one can trace the progression to this piece from his early studies of female heads, notably the Muse Endormie series. Gradually all details are suppressed so that by 1916 with Sculpture pour Aveugles (Geist 109), now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a smooth ovoid form has emerged, only vaguely reminiscent of a head. As Geist writes: "If Sculpture pour Aveugles was a muted or effaced version of a human head, Le Commencement du Monde carried the process of abstraction further to become an egg of creation. The planar construction evident in the marble all but disappears in the polished bronze. This taut, gleaming object is a golden egg of creation, presaging a new metallic universe - impersonal, weightless, light-filled" (S. Geist, Brancusi, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 1969, p. 111).
The tactile qualities of this object are self-evident. Its smooth, perfect contours closely ressemble those of the earlier marble carving, Sculpture pour Aveugles, and the title of this work expresses Brancusi's desire to give as much pleasure through touch as eye. This, he reiterated with Le Commencement du Monde when, according to H. P. Roché, he said he preferred it 'placed on a pillow or a sofa, and, especially, placed on his knees, touched by his hands, his eyes closed'.
Brancusi, it must be remembered, was one of the first sculptors to concern himself with the inherent properties of each medium he handled, as he felt it was imperative that the artist remain true to his materials. He first created Le Commencement du Monde from marble (Geist 131), thus preserving the smooth, unvibrated surface of carving (see fig. 2). He then cast two bronzes from this. The nuances of granular marble are replaced by the sweeping effects of polished metal. This light-filled object expresses something quite different to its weightier predecessor. The reflective surface adds a new dimension, it allows the accidental to disrupt the otherwise inalterable shape of the ovoid: its bright, metallic surface constantly casting shadows and dancing reflections.
Le Commencement du Monde marks a vital point of departure for Brancusi. Having refined this form to its absolute limit, it verges towards abstraction and takes on an icon-like significance. Jianou writes of this piece, "It is a plain egg, with smooth, round, irridescent surfaces, tenderly polished and bathed in light. It has neither beginning nor end and suggests the infinite character of the closed surface, devoid of any contact with the outside world. Not a single detail, nor one irregularity disturbs the serenity of this absolute, self-sufficient form, which creates its own space. The world is constantly beginning anew and its mystery is perpetuated in perfect Time ... In this work the artist has revived the ancient myth of the egg and given it new meaning" (I. Jianou, op. cit.).
Because of the rarity and uniqueness of Brancusi's sculptural oeuvre it is concentrated in relatively few museum collections: the Musée d'Art Moderne (Centre Georges Pompidou) in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in New York: the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Brancusi himself gave this bronze to Georges Salles, who was then director of the Musées Nationaux in Paris. With Jean Cassou, Salles ensured the contents of Brancusi's studio remained in France after his death. Salles presided over the artist's funeral in 1957, and delivered a moving farewell speech on behalf of the French nation: 'au nom de ceux qui savent qu'avec vous meurt un vrai poète et se referme, désormais inerte, un main divine..mais vos oeuvres restent, pures, lumineuses.'
"Infatigable et minutieux explorateur du monde organique, Brancusi n'avançait qu'avec prudence vers la concentration, l'abstraction suprêmes. Il faut l'avoir vu relever le moindre détail, observer sans cesse les milles connexions, les phénomènes, les lois les plus secrètes de la nature pour s'en rendre compte. Aussi avait-il beau réduire la complexité de la vie à la simplicité d'une forme primaire, elle n'en conservait pas moins, jusque dans l'abstraction la plus hardie, une évidente, une inaltérable beauté naturelle" (C. Giedion-Welcker, Constantin Brancusi, Basle, 1958, p. 27). Brancusi's works as a whole possess a staggering sense of unity, evolving gradually as if part of an organic process. Le Commencement du Monde marks a high point of this development, having evolved from a series of transformations and variations based upon a single, natural form. Brancusi once told Ezra Pound that 'all my sculptures date fifteen years back' and one can trace the progression to this piece from his early studies of female heads, notably the Muse Endormie series. Gradually all details are suppressed so that by 1916 with Sculpture pour Aveugles (Geist 109), now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a smooth ovoid form has emerged, only vaguely reminiscent of a head. As Geist writes: "If Sculpture pour Aveugles was a muted or effaced version of a human head, Le Commencement du Monde carried the process of abstraction further to become an egg of creation. The planar construction evident in the marble all but disappears in the polished bronze. This taut, gleaming object is a golden egg of creation, presaging a new metallic universe - impersonal, weightless, light-filled" (S. Geist, Brancusi, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 1969, p. 111).
The tactile qualities of this object are self-evident. Its smooth, perfect contours closely ressemble those of the earlier marble carving, Sculpture pour Aveugles, and the title of this work expresses Brancusi's desire to give as much pleasure through touch as eye. This, he reiterated with Le Commencement du Monde when, according to H. P. Roché, he said he preferred it 'placed on a pillow or a sofa, and, especially, placed on his knees, touched by his hands, his eyes closed'.
Brancusi, it must be remembered, was one of the first sculptors to concern himself with the inherent properties of each medium he handled, as he felt it was imperative that the artist remain true to his materials. He first created Le Commencement du Monde from marble (Geist 131), thus preserving the smooth, unvibrated surface of carving (see fig. 2). He then cast two bronzes from this. The nuances of granular marble are replaced by the sweeping effects of polished metal. This light-filled object expresses something quite different to its weightier predecessor. The reflective surface adds a new dimension, it allows the accidental to disrupt the otherwise inalterable shape of the ovoid: its bright, metallic surface constantly casting shadows and dancing reflections.
Le Commencement du Monde marks a vital point of departure for Brancusi. Having refined this form to its absolute limit, it verges towards abstraction and takes on an icon-like significance. Jianou writes of this piece, "It is a plain egg, with smooth, round, irridescent surfaces, tenderly polished and bathed in light. It has neither beginning nor end and suggests the infinite character of the closed surface, devoid of any contact with the outside world. Not a single detail, nor one irregularity disturbs the serenity of this absolute, self-sufficient form, which creates its own space. The world is constantly beginning anew and its mystery is perpetuated in perfect Time ... In this work the artist has revived the ancient myth of the egg and given it new meaning" (I. Jianou, op. cit.).
Because of the rarity and uniqueness of Brancusi's sculptural oeuvre it is concentrated in relatively few museum collections: the Musée d'Art Moderne (Centre Georges Pompidou) in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in New York: the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Brancusi himself gave this bronze to Georges Salles, who was then director of the Musées Nationaux in Paris. With Jean Cassou, Salles ensured the contents of Brancusi's studio remained in France after his death. Salles presided over the artist's funeral in 1957, and delivered a moving farewell speech on behalf of the French nation: 'au nom de ceux qui savent qu'avec vous meurt un vrai poète et se referme, désormais inerte, un main divine..mais vos oeuvres restent, pures, lumineuses.'