Artizon Museum

One of the most influential figures in twentieth-century sculpture finally gets a comprehensive career retrospective in Japan. Romanian-born Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) is considered one of the pioneers of modernist sculpture, thanks to his bold exploration of pure form. Around 90 exhibits, including 2D works such as fresco, tempera and drawings as well as sculptures, demonstrate how his muse flourished after a period working as assistant to Auguste Rodin. Brancusi’s artistic practice came to combine wild shapes influenced by non-Western art forms, such as African sculpture, with an acute sense of the materials he was working with. In earlier, plaster sculptures such as ‘The Kiss’ (1907-10), human and animal figures are abstracted yet still clearly identifiable. By the late 1920s however, as illustrated by the bronze-cast ‘Bird in Space’ (1926), Brancusi’s subjects are rendered as abstract silhouettes almost entirely distinct from their natural form. This retrospective includes over 20 sculptures on loan from the Brancusi Estate, as well as works from other collections both Japanese and international. The exhibition is closed on Mondays (except April 29, May 6), April 30 and May 7.