Endless Column
Brancusi made several versions of his Endless Column, this one being the first he fully developed. It consists of a single symmetrical element, a pair of truncated pyramids stuck together at their base, then repeated to produce a continuous rhythmic line. In replicating the same abstract shape, Brancusi emphasized its potential for vertical expansion—it was, he later said, a “column for infinity.”
Isamu Noguchi's artwork, Helix of the Endless, is inspired by the idea of Endless Column. It made of parts, replaceable and extensible, is ever intriguing. He wanted to give torque to Brancusi’s. The form a sculpture was best met by Brancusi with his Endless Column.
- Description
- This sculpture is the earliest extant Endless Column. In preceding years Brancusi had used a single or double pyramid as a base for his sculpture, but he eventually came to see this abstract construction as a fully realized work in its own right. Carved from oak, this succession of pyramids forms a rhythmic and undulating geometry that suggests the possibility of infinite expansion. Like other favorite motifs, this was one that Brancusi would return to over the course of his career. In the mid-1920s, he carved an Endless Column for his friend the photographer Edward Steichen that rose more than twenty-three feet. And in 1937 Brancusi erected a steel Endless Column in Tîrgu-Jiu, Romania, that soared more than ninety-eight feet into the air. That Endless Column, his last, was part of a larger sculptural ensemble that included The Gate of the Kiss and Table of Silence, which formed the artist’s only foray into public sculpture.
- Type
- Abstract Surrealist
- Subject
- Sculpture
- Creator
- Brancusi, Constantin
- Date Created
- 1918
- Medium
- oak (wood)
- Extent
- 6' 8" x 9 7/8" x 9 5/8" (203.2 x 25.1 x 24.5 cm)
- Rights
- © Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (ARS) 2018
- Identifier
- Bio_Sculpt003_CB_EndlessColumn
- Source
- MoMA official webiste
- Item sets
- The Biomorphism
- Media
