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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Eve and Shadow
Constantin Brancusi (Romanian, 1876–1957)
about 1922
Medium/Technique
Photograph, gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 30 x 24 cm (11 13/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Sophie M. Friedman Fund
Accession Number2002.150
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Photography
ClassificationsPhotographs
About 1910, Constantin Brancusi started taking photographs of his sculptures to show to distant clients. He soon began using the pictures as a working aid, providing him with new ways to think about his art. In the process, he produced an important body of photographs that document individual works as well as their installation in his studio, frequently in marvelous and unexpected juxtapositions with other sculptures. The images are highly subjective. In the most expressive ones, Brancusi transforms and reinterprets his artworks, often through inventive use of light and shadow. The power of his totemic wooden sculpture Adam and Eve is dramatically enhanced in this photograph by his isolation of Eve and her looming black shadow. Adam is eliminated from the picture, replaced by a smaller sculpture that balances the composition.
Inscriptionsnone
ProvenanceConstantin Brancusi gifted to Professor Barbu Brezianu; Private dealer, Holland (along with a larger group of prints); Private dealer, New York; Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York; from whom purchased by MFA June 26, 2002
Copyright© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.