Finding 70: Exhibition History of Constantin Brancusi, 1955
Installation view: Constantin Brancusi, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1955, first floor, third and forth room, looking east, with Torso of a Young Man, The Miracle, Caryatid, and White Seal. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, NY. Reference copy in Constantin Brancusi. Exhibition records. A0003. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York
Finding 70: Exhibition History of Constantin Brancusi, 1955
February 23, 2012
On Wednesday, October 26, 1955, the first major museum exhibition of Constantin Brancusi opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition, held at the 1071 Fifth Avenue town house, consisted of 59 sculptures and 10 drawings and gouaches. Seven of the works, including White Seal, came from Brancusi's studio in Paris, and many had never previously been shown in the United States.
In the press release, then-director James Johnson Sweeney described "the importance of such a comprehensive exhibition of the sculptor's work to a just appreciation of Brancusi's genius. Only such a cross-section of his art can bring out the full justice the variety of work, his dedicated love of materials—wood, stone, metal—and his simple, direct—yet subtly imaginative—interpretation of them."
Although never published, the exhibition records include extensive research and planning for an exhibition catalogue. Found within these files is a rare installation view of Brancusi's work at the Arts Club of Chicago in 1927.
—Francine Snyder, Director of Library and Archives