The exhibit highlights the life and work of the father of modern sculpture, Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi. The focus of the exhibit is one of his greatest works, the monumental ensemble “The Avenue of Heroes” from Targu Jiu, a unique public art installation inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Brancusi’s philosophy and focus on the essence of his subjects, simplifying their form and moving away from strict realism, revolutionized the 20th century artworld.
How far would you go to achieve your dream?
Constantin Brancusi was born in Hobita, a small village in Romania, in 1876. He was the son of Nicolae and Maria, hardworking people from the countryside. At the age of 7, he started working as a shepherd for his family, sculpting wood objects that would have been useful around the house. Two years later, he left home and he worked at a paint shop, a grocery store, and a tavern until he enrolled in the Arts and Crafts School in Craiova in 1894. During this time, he taught himself to read and write in order to perfect his craft, and he made a name for himself by building a violin. Brancusi then left to attend courses at the Bucharest School of Fine Arts. By studying modeling and anatomy very thoroughly, he was able to graduate from school a year early and with the maximum grade in 1902.
At the age of 26, Brancusi wanted to go to Paris, the global center of art in the early twentieth century. To get money for the trip, he accepted his first commission, a bust of General Carol Davila. The council that commissioned it wanted Brancusi to make some changes to the bust, in keeping with the fashion of the time, but the stubborn sculptor refused and chose to walk to Paris instead. After walking over 1,500 miles and spending a year working in Germany, then being hospitalized with pneumonia in a nuns' hospital in Switzerland, he finally arrived in France.
During his first year in Paris, he worked as a dishwasher, then received a scholarship in 1905 to enroll at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. After two years, he participated with a bust, a child's head, in the opening of the exhibition of the National Society of French Arts. He impressed the critics, although he was not satisfied with his art. When the great sculptor Auguste Rodin offered him the chance to be his apprentice, he left that studio after only two months to pursue his own artistic ideology, famously declaring that "Nothing can grow under big trees."
He opened his studio on Rue de Montparnasse, a place where the artists of the time gathered, being a contemporary of Guillaume Apollinaire, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani, and Marcel Duchamp. His first piece in his own style of direct carving was The Kiss, which was very popular among artists at the time. In the years that followed, he solidified the philosophy behind his art: a return to the essence of things, rather than simply reproducing nature exactly.
In 1934, the Gorj Women's League, led by Arethia Tătărescu, wife of Romanian Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu, initiated a project in Târgu Jiu to build a monument to honor the Gorj heroes who died in World War I. Brâncuși, who was still living in Paris, was contacted and invited to create the monument. The artist was promised that he would have complete creative freedom, so he eagerly accepted the offer and arrived in the country in the summer of 1937. After meeting with local officials and the Gorj Women's League, Brâncuși's plan to create a group of sculptures on a street that would later become Calea Eroilor (“The Avenue of Heros”) was approved. In October 1937 the work was carried out on the Table of Silence, the Gate of the Kiss, and the Endless Column.
The Table of Silence was created under the direct guidance of Constantin Brâncuși in the autumn of 1937, in a first version made of limestone. Dissatisfied with its proportions, following an incident in which he was forced to reduce the thickness of the tabletop, the artist commissioned a second version in 1938 from a workshop in Deva, made of Banpotoc travertine, with different dimensions. The final form of the monument came from combining the two versions: the tabletop of the first table became the leg, and the second was used as the final tabletop, a solution through which Brâncuși achieved the desired proportions. Twelve chairs made of Banpotoc stone, shaped like hourglasses and placed at equal distances from each other, were placed around the Table of Silence.
Along the path connecting the Table of Silence to the Gate of the Kiss, thirty more square stone chairs were placed, three in each of ten niches on either side, thus forming the Path of Chairs.
The Gate of the Kiss was placed in its current location in October 1937 and carved in the first part of 1938, being completed on September 20, 1938. Made of Banpotoc travertine, the gate is shaped like a triumphal arch. The monument incorporates the motif of the kiss, represented by two halves of a disc joined in a ring, present on the faces of each column and repeated on the architrave.
At the eastern end of the complex, the Endless Column was built, with a height of 29.35 meters, made up of rhomboidal cast iron modules mounted on a steel axis. The construction, carried out at the Central Workshops in Petroșani, as well as its installation in Târgu Jiu, were coordinated by engineer Ștefan Georgescu-Gorjan, a trusted collaborator of Brâncuși, son of Ion Georgescu-Gorjan, a close friend of the sculptor during the period when he lived in Craiova. The monument was finished using a special gun to spray gilding on molten brass under air pressure, an innovative technology for Romania at that time.
The Monumental Ensemble “Avenue of Heroes" is one of the most important creations of modern art. Through the simplicity of its forms, the power of its symbolic expression, and its harmonious integration into the city space, Constantin Brâncuși's work transcends the historical context that generated it, becoming a profound meditation on life, sacrifice, the idea of infinity, and countless other meanings that remain permanently open to interpretation. Recognized for its exceptional value in blending art and landscape, the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.
The revolutionary aspect of his work was seen in 1926, when Bird in Space was sent to New York for an exhibition at the Brummer Gallery, curated by his friend Marcel Duchamp. The artworks were permitted to enter the U.S. free from taxes. However, to qualify as sculpture, the works had to be “reproductions by carving or casting, imitations of natural objects, chiefly the human form”, so the custom officials classified it as a utilitarian object and levied against it 40% of the work’s value. Brancusi launched a complaint in court that had a number of experts testifying, which led the court to decide that the definition of art was out of date.
His last important work was the Flying Turtle in 1943. In the years that followed, he focused on arranging, photographing, and preserving his existing work. Brancusi had exhibitions at the Brummer Gallery, the Chicago Renaissance Society, and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with the largest being at the Guggenheim Museum. By the time he died in 1957, Constantin Brancusi had revolutionized the 20th century artworld and helped change both the legal definition of art and the wider perception of what art is.
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The curator of the exhibition is Alexandra Popescu ‘28, an international student from Romania. She studies Quantitative Social Sciences, is a teaching fellow in the Economics department, and researches investment support for renewable energy. Outside classes, she is a very active member of the Dartmouth community, holding multiple leadership positions and being involved with the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, the Irving Center for Energy and Society, and the Dickey Center for International Understanding. Although she does not have a background in the arts, Alexandra wanted to share a part of her cultural heritage and honor the 150th anniversary of Constantin Brancusi’s birth.
Special thanks to Max Seidman, Exhibits and Graphic Arts Designer, and Laura Graveline, Learning and Engagement Librarian for the Visual Arts, for supporting this exhibit.
Credits:
Tirlea Ion, the founder of the Targu Jiu Odinioara project, who supported the exhibit with materials from the Gorjean archive and biographical information about Constantin Brancusi.
Exhibit reception
Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 4:15
Berry Main Street