Brancusis Masquerade.pdf - Anna ChaveArt Historian

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MASTERPIECES FROM ROMANIAN MUSEUMS
1 5"1 990
f 11!;.Decemuer
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Gagosian Gallerg
980 Madison Avenue
York. New York 10075
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Publication @ 2011 Gagosian Gallerg
fOn Brancusi'@ 1968 lsamu Noguchi. Reprinted with the permission ol
HarperCollins Publishers.
lElrancusi's Masquerade: Social Standing, Self'lmage, and Photographic
lmposturo' O 2011 Anna C. Chave.
lBrancusi; Masterpieces From Romanian Museums'courtesg of PARS
lnternational Corp. and the Now York Times. Originallg published in the New York
Jimes, November 16, 1990. Reprinted with pormission.
,;biancusi Masterpieces at Gagosian'courtosg of BMP Media Holdings, LLC.
i:Originallu published in Art in America, Februarg 1991, Reprinted with permission.
i::Constantin Brancusi' O 1990 Cond6 Nast. All rights reserved. Originallg
ti.,'We Witt Never Kiss 'The Kiss' Again' courtesg of the Art Newspaper. Originallg
published in tho Art Newspaper, Januarg 1991 . Reprinted with permission.
lBrincusi Brouhaha' @ 199'1, ARTnews, LLC. Originallg publishod in ARTnews'
March lggl. Reprinted with permission '. ' ' , " :; ': ill '- ': '': :, ' 'i'il .ji1r"i;ii'i '
artwork bg Constantin Brancusi @ 2011 Artists Rights Societg (ARS),
YoTUADAGP, Paris
Editor: Kara Vander Weg
Gagosian 6allerU boordinators: Andie Tralner, Rose Dorgan, Melissa Lazarov,
Alison McDonald, Abbg Merrick, and Constance Perrot
Copg editor: Nicole Lanctot
Photographg credits: figs. 1.4, 5, 6, and 1 0: photographs bg Constantin Brancusi,
the collection of the Mus6e National d'Art Moderne, Centre 6eorgos
P6mpidou, Paris O CNAC/MNAM/Dist, R6union des Mus6os Nationaux/Art
..r.:
Sesource, New Yorkl figs. 2, 9, and 1 9: photographs bg Philippe Migeat;
3, 8, I 1, 1 3, and 20: photographs bg Georges Megue-rditchian;
1.1: @ Mihal Oroveanu; fig. 12: photograph bg David Heal @ Solomon R.
Guggenhelm Foundation, Now York; fig, 13: photograph bg Edward Steichen
Carousel Research; figs. 14, '15, and 17: OCNAC/MNAM/Dist. REunion des
i,{,jfi Mus6es NationaulArt Resource, New York fig. 16: courtesg ol Sidneg Geist,
';.lr;,i-,taoarur^;ilu.
iri;ffi,r Now York; fig. 18: l9;99urrEtgulpEllIlqlulvlvvJUtuvgerrlEPilv,rtu.
courtesg of Bernhard Moosbrugger/Rapho; fig. 21: photograph
i-;ilfu
bg Wagne Miller, courtesg of Magnum Photos. All other photographs bg Christian
.to:,{.f{.3, Crampont. Everg attompt has been made to locate tho copgright holders for the
' ;'l-:
j materials included ln this book. We sincorelg regret ang omissions.
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C-ataloguo designod bg Graphic Thought Facilitg, London
j,Color separations bg Echelon, Los Angeles
Printed bg Shapco Printing, Minneapolis, MN
.All rights ieservod. No part ol this publication mag bo roprinted or reproduced
in ang form or bg ang electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopging and recording, or in ang information
retrioval sgstem, without prior written permission lrom the copgright holders.
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tsBN 978 1 93526327 2
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BRANCUSI'S MASQUERADE:
SO.C IAL' STAN D I N G, S ELF. I MAG E,
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Fig. 13 Brancusi in his studio at 8, impasse Ronsin, 1927, photographed bg Edward Steichen.

'Wearing white paiamas and a gellow, gnomelike cap, Brancusi todag
hobbles about his studio tenderlg caring for and communing with the silent
host of fish, birds, heads and endless columns which he created. The
old man leads the same humble life he led as a peasant bog in Romania
before the turn of the centurg.'Thus Life magazine coniured constantin
Brancusi for the countrg that had consistentlg shown the greatest interest
in his art, on the occasion of his first museum retrospective, in New
york in 1955.1 Supporting Life's characterization, a photograph bg Ber'
nard Moosbrugger IFig.15] reveals a bent and bearded septuagenarian
surrounded bg oddlg timeless objects, at once folkish or archaic'looking
and modernist, Here was, either/or, a sage gnome tending his unusual
treasures or a backward Romanian shepherd dwarfed bg a copse of
strange trees.
That Brancusi dressed in something like an Eastern European peasant's
Sundag garb, posing as an exotic for a mass'market U'S' magazine
both was and was not an act of imposture on his part. Unlike the other important
avant-gardists of his era, Brancusi alone was born a peasant. For
that matter, as an elementarg-school dropout he worked intermittentlg
as a (reputedlg inept) shepherd.2 Over the gears, Brancusi kept various
farm animals (chickens, rabbits, a goose) on the grounds of the Parisian
cul-de-sac whsre his studio stood, housing his various sculpted creatures
(birds, fish), which prompted mang visitors to ruminate about the artist's
rural origins. But since his shepherding dags weie nearlg seven decades
behind him when Moosbrugger arrived for this sitting, Brancusi's choice
of attire was in a wag sgmbolic, or a form of masquerade'
TherolethatBrancusiplagedforMoosbrugger'slens_thatofthe
artist-genius miraculouslg found in the guise of a lowlg shopherd-is a
familiar one in the annals of art historg epitomized bg an apocrgphal storg
about 6iotto: that he was discovered bg chance bg the painter cimabue
while tending his farmer-father's flock, and that he made his immanent
genius known bg drawing animal forms in the dirt. 3 As Brancusi's life
storg is usuallg told, a grocer-restaurateur is generallg given credit for
discovering his teenage emplogee's skill in crafting wood-notablg a violin
fashioned from a crate, as legend has it-and for arranging his full'time
enrollment in a regional school of arts and crafts'
'Brancusi'sprocessof'socialascension'-thefactthathemanaged
to travel from a remote Romanian hamlet to the epicenter of the cultural
life of his time, from menial toil to shaping perhaps the most celebrated
sculpture of the twentieth centurg-did not follow automaticallg from his
being .discovered,' of course. lt was a testament to his formidable ambi'
tion and effort, including an extended course of art schooling. He began
taking classes at the craiova School of Arts and crafts around 1889
(beforehis boss noted his talents)from which he graduated in '1898; he
studied sculpture at the Bucharest School of Fine Arts until 1902 [Fig.
141, and resumed his training in 1905 at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux'
Arts in Paris, reportedlg leaving in 1907 onlg because he had exceeded
the student age Iimit of thirtg.a Though he had bg then undergone roughlg
fifteen gears of art education, the provincial aspirant sought further guidance
still, and so secured an assistant's position in Rodin's studio-where
he did not stag long, however. During this time, when ho was struggling
to overcome his past and to demonstrate his bona fides as a fullg accul'
; turated European artist, Brancusi certainlg did not pose for cameras in
'peasant .paiamas.' Rather, he is tgpicallg seen in conventionallg tailored
suits, jackets, and uniforms, which were sometimes covered bg an artist's
smock.
His student work and other earlg objects included in Gagosian
Gallerg's 1990 exhibition 'Brancusi: Masterpieces from Romanian Mus. . ^
eums,' are not tgpicallg counted among the sculptor's highest achieve' I ,.., .
ments, (Arguablg excepting the site-specific sculptures at T619u Jiu, his ,r#;#r
verg best works have never been held in Romanian collections.) Th" ].i "ll"t''
show,s title is apropos, however, inasmuch as Brancusi was demonstrator
which were held up to him as exemplarg' in various of the works in '' -.
question. For example, the 1905 work Pride was a t6fe d'expression'
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standard exercise in rendering effectivelg a specific emotional state, and
,1908's S/eep shows Brancusi displaging his prowess in a Rodinian vo'
cabularg. Perhaps on accountof his humble origins Brancusi continued i,,i ',
to feel the imperative to prove his proficiencg in established sculptural ,:".
paradigms throughout his career. Thus, a capstone of the studio tours , '
that he regularlg gave to visitors (alwags preferring to show his art in his :
workplace rather than at a commercial gallerg) was the showing of photo'
graphs of his academic work'5
ln the 1907 Kiss (also shown at Gagosian), however, we find Brancusi , ,,.,.', ,
not contentto prove his command of academic sculptural languages, but I ,,1.1' ,.:
rather he is forging a language of his own. Here is an obiect-a bloclllke.,,.;r, -
glgph of the upper bodies of an embracing couple-that might almost.,r,i'ri:i,rt'
be mistaken for artisanal, if not untutored, carving. Onlg after acquir' I ',;:'i' '
ing an elaborate batterg of artistic skills did Brancusi find the courage
to sublimate that knowledge in an alternate concept of what aesthetic
achievement might consist of; an alternate expressive vocabularg' And t -
once he admitted to his sculptural practice certain radical acts of simplifi'
cation, which to some degree correlated with received notions of primitive .,
or.folk.art,Brancusiwouldreportedlgattimesreenacttheroleofapss5',,'.;.,
ant while graduallg turning his combined home and studio into something , ,, ., . ,
that coulj pass, in- paris, ior a rural Romanian abode. Brancusi saw that ,-',..
African masks, sag, or vaunted the self-taught painter Henri Rousseau. '
Following Brancusi's successful 1926 exhibitions in New York galleries
and at a peak of his career, the poet E' E. Cummings wrote a pseu'
dongmous spoof ofthe sculptor and his reception in local'societu'-one
that might seem to be a parodg avant la tettre of Life's idgllic characteri'
zation: 'lvan Narb remains just as simple and sincere "' as when he was
hoeing his father's potatoes on the solitarg outskirts of the ting hamlet of
Blurb,inLatvia,., NoonerealizesbetterthanMrs.HarrgPagnevander:. ::,,i,.r,,'
bilt how unspoiled and naif this ultramodern Michelangelo has remained";,' 'i!ii'1';' '
Naturallg she decided to give a little dinner for this social lion and invito : ""ilr:.
everuone of intellectual piominence.' Narb arrives at the posh .nu'..1u6 ,r,,i,. ';:
in 'a pair of B.V.D.s,' apparel that was called a'disappointment [to] mafl! '
present.'6 But photographs taken during Brancusi's trip to New York' .
such as an image captured at the Wildenstein Galleries irig. t ol, gener' ;:'l
allg reveal a well-groomed man impeccablg turned out in British tweeds'
And photos of the sculptor consorting with moneged supporters (includ' ,,i, .
ing his first major patron, John Quinn)tgpicallg show him similarlg attired, ',,
whether in the United States or in France.
ln 1949, Brancusi reminisced fondlg about the elegant outfits he had,:;, ' , ,
sported when traveling bg ocean liner to the U.S. and elsewhere: 'He said ,
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Fig. 14 Brancusi inthestudioof iheNaiional School of FineArts,Bucharest('dlaVenusdeMilo"),ca. l899-1901

Brancusi in his studio, reproduced in Life magazine, December 5, 1955, with the caption' 'A Humble Lifo oI Pure Jog"
Fig. ,T6 Brancusi with Eird in spa ce, ca.1923 -24, at the wildenstein Galleries' New York' 1926
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,l: Fig.17 Brancusi returning from lndia bg boat, ca. 1938.
Fig,18 Brancusi in a traveling costumo, 1904.

he preferred big boats reallg, the luxurg of them was stimulating. He liked
the wag clothes were brushed and laid out" Contemplating a potential
trip to Philadelphia, Brancusi mused that while his 'tails' had become
moth-eaten, he might get resurrect his smoking iacket. At the 'captain's
dinners,'the sculptor reportedlg recalled,'everuone hesitated to put on
paper hats for fear of looking ridiculous. 'And get,' he said, 'that was the
onig purpor" of those hats.''7 A 1938 photo of Brancusi in a Chinese
'coolie's' hat, taken during a return vogage from lndia, confirms his par'
ticipation in such foolerg. [Fig' 17]
'Brancusi loved masquerading,' recalled his friend, art historian Carola
Giedion-Welcker. ln Paris in 1907, for example, this 6mig16 from the
Far East-of Europe-attended 'a masked ball at the Beaux'Arts.'.Armed
with a musical instrument shaped like an alphorn, with tinkling bells on his
arms and legs and a metal strainer on his head, he walked aboutwith comi'
cal dignitg, sandwiched in between two Oriental rugs, one of which trailed
behind him in a long train.'8 Given this penchant for attention'getting
costumes, it is not inconceivable that the sculptor showed up in peasant
mufti (if not in B.V.D.s) at a patrician NewYork partg. Brancusi seeminglg
liked Americans in part on account of their relative class-blindness. And
in 1914 (that is, in the wake of the notorious Armorg show that first made
him a sensation with U.S. audiences), critic Henrg McBride invoked a vi'
sion of social leveling-of 'an age whose rallging word is 'libertU'['] An age
in which all barriers are down; an age in which the women wish to be men;
everg countrg wishes to be like its neighbor, and an expert is required to
tellthe difference between an aristocrat and a democrat'-in an appreciative
review of Brancusi's first solo show, at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallerg'e
As McBride perceived him, Brancusi was 'suave, wittg, elegant.'10
To poet William Carlos Williams, bg contrast, he seemed to be a'Roma'
nian shepherd.' But when (during a 1924 studio visit) Williams remarked
to Brancusi about the great'tolerance'of the French, who had let him
settle among them, the sculptor reportedlg cautioned that such toler'
ance was onlg to be found 'in a certain class, Among the aristocracg in
France gou will find a rigiditU of manners greater than angwhere in the
world.'11 Unlike in the U.S., then, in France-where his art was largelg
treated during his lifetime as the excrescence of a peasant or, at best, a
provincial=Brancusi had something to prove (except, of course, to such
broad-minded intimates as Marcel Duchamp).12 The heiress Peggg 6ug'
genheim related, 'Brancusi liked to go to verg elegant hotels in .France
and [arrive] dressed like a peasant, and then order the most expensive
things possible.'13 And numerous stories are told of the sculptor spontaneouslg
masquerading as some tgpe of underclass figure in France, such
as a'professional street'singer,' rewarded with spare change during the
final gears of World War l.ra ln another aneodote (told in similar terms bg
various raconteurs), architect David Lewis describes having been unsure
of the identitg of the 'scruffg' man he encountered outside of Brancusi's
studio on his first visit, in 1956, as the sculptor initiallg acted the part
of the concierge (thus, incidentallg, testing the reach of Lewis's social
graces).15
When Oscar Chelimskg first met Brancusi at his studio in 1948'
'he was wearing a beautiful English tweed suit which' curiouslg enough,
I never saw again; in our subsequent encounters he invariablg wore the
sculptor's blouse and trousers.'ro lndeed, visitors' accounts normallg
have Brancusi dressed (practicallU enough) in work clothes while in his
atelier. These outfits were also costumes of a kind, however, which var'
ied from an un-tucked 'sculptor's blouse,'which appears in a romantic
photograph bg Edward Steichen, for instance [Fig.13l, to a butcher's
or chef-tgpe cotton coatl?tucked into sashed pants in a group of self'
portraits, ca. 1922 [Fig.21], to a fishermanlike sweater worn in another
series of self-portraits, ca. 1 933 - 34 [Fig' 191, to grag or white coveralls,
seen in nu merous self -portraits as well as in images f rom 1946 bg Wagne
Miller, a Magnum photoiournalist [Fig.20J' For his feet, the sculptor gen'
erallg favored peasant clogs. (At 1920s Parisian parties with Americans,
the music-loving Brancusi 'pranced about as the spirit of the iazz age, '
although at times wearing wooden sabots.'tB) His accustomed studio
headgear was either a white'brimmed 'canvas beach hat' or a stocking
cap, as seen in the Llfe article. Pragmaticallg, for a man often covered in
marble and plaster dust, 'his attire was alwags white' in the memorg of
mang, including sculptor lsamu Noguchi (who served as Brancusi's as'
sistant in 19Zl1.ts But some reported finding him flambogantlg clad 'in
a suit that is as gellow as the sun'20 -clothing color'coordinaied, that is,
with the signature golden color of his bronzes.2l
'Costuming oneself as a peasant or fisherman was a common
phenomenon' among artists in France, art historian Robert L. Herbert
observes. lt conveged 'a wish to associate oneself with the working class
not the moneged bourgeoisie';for artists to masquerade in this wag 'had
(and has) mang shadings, from the preposterous to the heartfelt state'
ment of solidaritg ,.. In the latter case, I think of Pissarro's and C6zanne's
countrg/hunters' dress, and L6ger's pullovers.'22 When Brancusi and
the poet Ragmond Radiguet took off for Corsica on a lark in the mid'
1920s, 'theg f itted themselves out in fishermen's clothes for their return
to Paris.'20 About a decade later, Brancusi photographed himself in a
fisherman-tgpe sweater and trousers tFig.19l with a (surfboardlike) marble
Fish standing lust behind his shoulders, suggesting a pair of wings,
and an Endles s Column appearing to grow from the top of his head in a
telling extension of his verg spine. Bg the latter compositional device, as
well as bg the stark frontalitg and centralitg of his pose, Brancusi violated
some elementarg precepts of photographic portraiture, and his photog'
rapher friends sometimes derided his skill with a camera (not to mention
as a printer who blithelg embraced technical imperfection)'24
Within the confines of his studio, Brancusi could, and mostlg did,
prevent others from taking pictures, whether of himself or of his work, a
ban that eased onlg late in his life, when he largelg ceased both sculpting
and photographing. While Brancusi had principallg used his cameras
to record his atelier and its contents, he also (unusuallu) made mang
portraits of himself there, tgpicallg clad in workers' garb and posed just
so, as if at work on his art or simplg at leisure' ln his self'portrait from ca'
1922lFig.21l,lor instance, we find a somber figure artfullg framed bg
and sandwiched between some old timber and a hunk of stone with the
tools of his m6tier laid at hand (but his hands are held behind his back,
however). Thus we have a portrait of the artist intent on mustering a vision
with which to transform his raw materials-a vision incipient in the zigzag
outline sketched on one piece of timber.
Brancusi's self-images generallg appear quite calculated or staged,
but the few professionals who managed to photograph him tended to
even more theatrical portragals' Steichen, for instance, shot from a high
angle-the view of the Almightg on the Chosen' sag, who assumes in this

a
Fig.19 Self-portrait of the artist in his studio, 1 1, impasse Ronsin, ca.1933-1934

Brancusi in his studio at impasse Ronsin' 1946

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Fig.21 Self-portrait of the artist in his studio, 8, impasse Ronsin, ca.1922.

instance the guise of an inspired carpenter pausing in his labors in the
half-light. And Miller's masterful, tack"sharp image of the sculptor tucked
gnomelike into a decorativelg framed arch is elegantlU, dramaticallU lit.
BU contrast, Brancusi tgpicallg positioned his camera at ege'level, as
the 'gaze' of an equal; sometimes left the lens slightlg unfocused, and
normallg relied on available, natural lighting, whose permutations he experimented
with endlesslg. (ln his high-ceilinged studio, the light mostlg
fell from above, creating flattering effects for human and sculptural subjects
alike.)
Brancusi's long-running exercise in masquerade variouslg emerges,
'in sum, as an attempt to inhabit, to remake, and to challenge certain social
stereotgpes. Yet devotion to self-stgling was not conventionallg the prov'
ince of a manlg man (as the sculptor seeminglg conceived of himself), but
of the dandg or the feminine. 'The masculine self has traditionallg been
held to be inherentlu opposed to the kind of deceit and dissembling char'
acteristic of the masquerade,' Harrg Brod noted.25 ln psgchoanalgiic
terms, for that matter, the masquerade is an undertaking that women are
tacitlg compelled to perform;thus, in Joan Riviere's classic 1929 account,
awoman with stereotgpicallg masculine professional ambitions shrewdlg
dresses and acts in hgperfeminine wags to deter male apprehension of
her designs on a masculine domain.26 While Brancusi was not, of course,
a member of the 'second sex,' he was vulnerable to being subordinated
in his adopted homeland on class and other grounds, so he mag have
acted to cloak his outsize ambitions bg assuming, or foregrounding, a dis'
tinctlg humble wardrobe. Onlg at the conclusion of an eminentlg eventf ul,
accomplished, and urbane life, however, did Brancusi conspicuouslg per'
form for the camera in a role that he had actuallg abandoned earlg on.
Bg dressing as an archetgpal peasant for Llfe's American readership,
Brancusi not onlg took ownership of a fiction that counted as a kind of
elitist slur in the sociallg hidebound context of France-'once a peasant,
alwag-s a peasant'-but he also represented something romantic to the
more mobile, urbanized United States (where peasantrg remained a for'
eign concept).
For several decades Brancusi elected to sculpt certain subjects re'
peatedlg, with more or less slight variations-his birds, 'eggs,'the Endless
Columns, Ihe Kiss-objects that can seem, paradoxicallg, at once ar'
chaic and modern. ln other words, the sculptor came to cherish a vision
of modernitg or futuritg that bore a resemblance to a halcgon past, one
reminiscent of his earlg life in Romania as he came to idealize it.27 Though
he had once been so desperate to leave Romania that he (legendarilU)
walked much of the wag to Paris, it suited Brancusi in the end to assume
a role mang had long reserved for him: the part, however incredible, of a
simple get sago soul whose life never changed, but instead-like his artsomehow
transcended time.
1. 'Great Recluse: Brancusi and Art Come from Hiding,' Life, December 5, 1955' The exhibition
premiered at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
2. For tales of goung Constantln deserting his flock, see Barbu Brszlanu,'The Beginningc of Bran' .
cusi,' ArtJournal,vol.25, no.l (Fall 1965): 15-16.
S.Thisnarrativetropewas(first?)identifiedassuchinErnstKris,'ThelmageoftheArtlst'(193'l),in..t::,",
Psgchoanalgtic Explorations ln Arl(Niw Yorlc Schocken, 1 S64), 68-69. ' ,,
4. See the chronologg in Friedrich Tela Bach, Margit Rowell, Ann Temkin. Constaatin Brancusl :
1876- 1957 (Philadelphia: Phitadelphia Museum ofArt, 1 995),372-74.The term'soclal ascension'
comesfrom Kris,asabove,69. t.
5. Regarding the ritual .oI the studio tour, see Anna C. Chavs, Constantin Brancusi: Shifting tha
,,j, ,.
EasesofAri(NewHaven,CT:YaleUniversitgPress,l99S),274-84.
..t.- tli,,
6.GwendolgnOrloff(pseud.E.ECummings),'lvanNarbrAbstractSculptorofthsCosiniC(10271',1S;1':
inGeorgeJ.Firmago,ad.,EECunnings:AMiscellangRevisad.(NewYork:OctoberHouso.lg65),,i':''"" '
'l 84 -85. B.V.D. was a trademarked brand of men's one.piece long underwear. l
7. John 6oodwin, 'Visiting Brancusi,' March 15, 1949, unpublished tgpescript Archives of the Solo'
mon R. 6uggenheim Museum, New York, n.p.
E.CarolaGisdion-W6lck6r, ConstanlinBrancusl,trans.MarlaJolalandAnneLerou (NawYorlc ':'.'
George Elrazillor, lg5g), lg4. As a longtime friend of Marcel Duchamp aka Rrose s6lavu' Brancusi : rr
also liked to relats his advsntures of dressing as a woman during carnival time in Romanla: see ibld. l', . .
9. Henrg McBride, 'Brancu3i,' March 2 2,1914,|n The Flow of Art Essags and Criticlsms of llelry ' .". .
McBrida ed. Daniel Catton Rich (NewYork: Athensum,1975),57.
10.lbid.,56.
1 1 . William Carf os Williams, The Autobiographg ot Wittiam Cartos Wtllians (New Yorlc Randdm ..:1*1
.-
House,1951),196. ,.. -l
12. Whon Brancusl showed a E/rd in Space at the Salon des TuilerlEs in '192E, for oxample, promi' . .
nent critic Louis Vauxcelles derided not onlg the'long copper cigar... precariouslg poised on a pile of
paving blocks,' but also thoss who valued it: 'Apparentlg, North Amerlca is wild about oblects ofthls-,.''.r ,
sort. I fear for Monsieur Brancusi that in the land of Houdon, Rude, Barge, Carpaaux, Rodin, Maillol' ,
and Despiau, he will r€main an unsung herol' Review in Excslsior, Mag 1928, cit6d in Pontus Hulton'
Natalia Dumitresco, and Alexandre lstrati, Erancusi(NewYork Harrg N. Abrams, 1S87).187.
13. Peggg Guggenhelm, Out of This Centurg: Confessions of an Arl Addicl (New York; Unlvsrse
Books, 1979), 21 1.
14. Giedion-Welcke r, Constantin Brancusi, 19 4,
15. David Lewis, 'Preface,' to Edith Balas, Brancusi and l'lis t4rorld (Pittsburgh: Carnegle Mellon .r;,;
Universitg Press, 2008), xiii.
17. Fred Dennis, Romg 6olan, Robort Horb6rt, Lgnda Klich, Kennolh Silver, Valerie Steele, and .
aboveall,EmilgBraunhavemggratitudofortheirastutoanswerstomgqueriesaboutthedistinctivel
garmentworninthisself-portrait(Brancuslconslderedhlmsillanoutstandingcook) ',,,,
ls. statement bg Robert McAlmon, in McAlmon and Kag Bogle, Eeing 6aniusesTogelhec 1920--. .. ' "'
t93O(London: Hogarth, 19E4), 1 1 2.
10. lsamu Noguchi, 'Rocollections of Brancusi' (Foreword), ln Edith Balas, Bra ncusi and Rumanian '",::,:' .
FolkTraditions (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1987), vii.
20. Dorothg Adlow, 'Brancusi,' Drawing I Design, vol, 2, no. 8 (Feb. 1927): 37. Jeanne Robert Fostor
noted finding Brancusi in 'leather sabots overalls-gellowish coat' whsn she and her companion
John Quinn dined attho artist's 3tudio on Julg 29, 1921 . Diarg entrg, Foster'Murphg Collactio+ New ,:::;
"
.'
York Public Librarg, Box 4.
21. One visitor remarked ol the rigorous color.coordination evident in Erancusi's environment 'thc . l' l, .'
greg and white and Uellow of his sculplurs, the greu and white and gellow of the walls and cushions iri r:,
and bed cover and the {aded daffodils... the onlg thing in the room that was not greg or white oi .' ,: . .','.
gellow was the bright blue package of Gitanes from which he chain smoked.'6oodwin, Yisiting .,,:.:.':.''.
Elrancusi,'n.p. I' ., .'.il...'-; ,:,
22. Robort L Herber! e.mail communication to the author, June 26, 201 0. Brancusi was trtenUlg,i:it:fiix$ifi
vvithL6ger-andwithBraque,whohasbeencalled'anearlgexponentof proletariandandgism'..'....,"... -.
in the fastidiouslg chosen workar's clothes which he would alwags favon Norman peasants'tiesl:).i;'1 -
ol narrow black cord, nonchalantlg knotted; dEnim washed and faded to iusi the right faint tint and ') ,
texture; caps and hats of all kinds worn with casual panache.'por John Richardson with Mariign ', :'i'
thisreferenco. ... ;-,1 ,
23. Statement bg McAlmon, in McAlmon and Bogle. Eaing AeniusosTogether,ll6,
24. See Friedrich Teja Bach, 'Brancusi and Photographg,' in Bach, et al., Conslantin Brancust' -,,. ;; ;
3 1 2- 19, for a useful introduction to this topic.
25. Harrg Brod,'Masculinitg as Masquerade,'in fhe Masculine Masquerada od. Andre" P"t hY..!, i;,.i.ii,
andHelainePosner(Cambridge:MlTPress,1995),'13.
,...',,,,1i.
26. Joan Rivioro, 'Womanliness as a Masquerade' (1929), reprinted in Formalions of Fantasg. cd. ''
'
Victor Burgin, James Donald, Cora Kaplan (London: Methuen. 1986), 35-4'l ' 1., ...
27. Some scholarg of Romanlan heritage have argued {orths explicitlu Rom&nlan valsnces to Bran- ,.r.':r'.lrl
cusi's practice (see especiallg Balas, Brancusl an d Runanlan FolkTradrtions), if in ikongor torm3 :1l,,r;iii-1tr. :'
than aie generallg accepted bg other Brancusians,
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