Constantin Brancusi Romanian, active France, 1876–1957
About this artwork
Trained in both folk and academic traditions, Constantin Brancusi sought his own path for sculpture around 1907. Breaking with the currents of the time, he adopted direct carving, combined different materials for single works, and simplified form in his search for his subjects’ essential characters. His works have profoundly influenced the development of twentieth-century abstraction.
More than any other theme, Brancusi’s series Bird summarizes his quest for a self-sufficient form. “All my life, I have sought to render the essence of flight,” the artist once said. He began the first of twenty-seven Bird sculptures around 1910 and completed the last in the 1940s. He called the earliest variations Maiastra, referring to a bird in Romanian folklore that leads a prince to his princess. In the Art Institute’s Golden Bird, details such as feet, a tail, and an upturned crowing beak are only suggested in an elegant, streamlined silhouette. Brâncusi perched this refined shape on a rough-hewn, geometric base, contrasting the disembodied, light-reflective surface with an earthbound mass. The central polyhedron was cut from the middle of a tree trunk, and its circles (indicating the tree’s age) rotate like a sun, as if radiating light over the bird.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Partial gift of The Arts Club of Chicago; purchased with funds provided by various donors; through prior bequest of Arthur Rubloff; through prior purchase with funds provided by William E. Hartmann; through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold H. Maremont through the Kate Maremont Foundation, Woodruff J. Parker, Mrs. Clive Runnells, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, and various donors
Ezra Pound, The Little Review 8 (Autumn 1921), n.p. (ills., pls. 17, 24).
Sculptor’s Gallery, Exhibition of Contemporary French Art exh. cat. (New York: Sculptor’s Gallery, 1922), n.p. (cat. 14), as Bird, 1921.
Mina Loy, “Brancusi’s Golden Bird,” The Dial v. LXXIII (July–December, 1922), pp. 507-508 (ill.), as The Golden Bird.
Paul Westheim, “Bildhauer in Frankreich,” Das Kunstblatt 6, no. 2 (Potsdam, 1922), pp. 54–55, 57 (ill.), as Der Goldene Vogel.
Carl Einstein and Paul Westheim, Europa Almanach: Malerei, Literatur, Musik, Architektur, Plastik, Bühne, Film, Mode (Potsdam: Gustav Kiepenheuer Publishers, 1925), p. 56 (ill.), as Der heilige Vogel.
Ezra Pound, “Art Supplement,” This Quarter 1, no. 1 (1925), p. 289 (ill.), as L’oiseau d’or, 1920.
Carl Einstein, Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Im Propyläen-Verlag, 1926), pp. 168, 526 (ill.), 569, as Der goldene Vogel.
Roger Fry, Catalogue of the Exhibition of Tri-National Art: French, British, American exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein Galleries, 1926), n.p. (cat. 146), as The Bird.
Paul Morand, Brancusi exh. cat. (New York: Brummer Gallery, 1926), n.p. (cat. 20, ill., pl. 20), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Walter Pach, Memorial Exhibition of Representative Works Selected from the John Quinn Collection exh. cat. (New York: Art Center, 1926), p. 12 (cat. 85), as Bird.
Possibly Forbes Watson, John Quinn 1870–1925 [sic]: Collection of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings and Sculpture (Huntington, New York: Pidgeon Hill Press, 1926), p. 27, as Bird.
C. J. Bulliet, “Artless Comment on The Seven Arts,” Chicago Evening Post Magazine of Art (January 11, 1927), p. 3, as Golden Bird.
Arts Club of Chicago, An Exhibition of Sculpture by Brancusi exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1927), n.p. (cat. 20), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, Exhibition of the School of Paris: 1910–1928 exh. cat. (Cambridge: Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, 1929), n.p., (cat. 29), as Golden Bird.
Arts Club of Chicago, Exhibition of Modern Sculpture and Drawings by Sculptors exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1933), n.p. (cat. 8, ill.), as Golden Bird.
E. W. S., A Selection of Works by Twentieth-Century Artists exh. cat. (Chicago: Renaissance Society, 1934), n.p. (cat. 3, ill.), as Flight of Bird, 1919.
Cincinnati Modern Art Society, Four Modern Sculptors: Brancusi, Calder, Lipchitz, Moore (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Modern Art Society, 1946), n.p., as Bird in Flight.
W. R. Valentiner, Origins of Modern Sculpture exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1946), pp. 6–7, as Bird in Flight.
W. R. Valentiner, Origins of Modern Sculpture exh. cat. (Saint Louis: City Art Museum of Saint Louis, 1946), p. 19 (cat. 81), as Bird in Flight.
V. G. Paleolog, Brancusi, 1947, pp. 39, 44.
Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1952), p. 41 (cat. 10), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Ionel Jianou, Constantin Brancusi, 1957, pl. 46.
Ionel Jianou, Brancusi (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1963), pp. 55, 103 (no. II), 104, 170 (ill., fig. 46), 171, as Bird in Space (Golden Bird) II, 1919; and Bird in Space (Golden Bird), 1925.
Arts Club of Chicago, Drawings 1916/1966: An Exhibition on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Arts Club of Chicago exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1966), n.p. (ill.).
Sidney Geist, Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968), pp. 69 (ill., fig. 117), 200, 223–224 (cat. 117), as Golden Bird, 1919.
B. L. Reid, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 473, as Bird.
Sidney Geist, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1969), pp. 94–95 (ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Athena T. Spear, Brancusi’s Birds (New York University Press for the College Art Association, 1969), pp. 12–3, 35, 46, 70 (ill., pl. 13), 71 (cat. 8), 115, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Athena T. Spear, “Letter to the Editor,” The Art Bulletin 52, no. 1 (March, 1970), p. 111, as Golden Bird.
Sidney Geist, “The Birds of Brancusi: A Critique of the Catalog of a Recent Brancusi Monograph,” Artforum 9, no. 3 (November, 1970), pp. 77 (no. 8, ill.), 79, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Athena T. Spear, “Exhibition Review: Constantin Brancusi,” The Art Quarterly XXXIV, 2 (1971), p. 239, as Golden Bird.
Sidney Geist, Brancusi: The Sculpture and Drawings (Harry N. Abrams, 1975), pp. 91 (ill.), 183 (cat. 125), 195, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Constantin Brancusi, Omagiu lui Brancusi (Sibiu: Rivista Tribuna, 1976), n.p. (ill.), as Pasarea de Aur, 1919.
Possibly Tretie Paleolog, De vorba cu Brancusi despre “Calea Sufletelor Eroilor” (Bucharest: Editura Sport-Turism, 1976), p. 31 (ill.).
V. G. Paleolog, Brancusi–Brancusi vol. I (Craiova: Scrisul Romanesc, 1976), pp. 99, 100 (ill., fig. 47), 102, as Pasarea de Aur / Golden Bird.
Dan Grigorescu, Brâncusi (Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1977), p. 41, as Golden Bird.
Judith Zilczer, “The Noble Buyer:” John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978), p. 56 (ill., fig. 43), 151, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Marielle Tabart and Isabelle Monod Fontaine, Brancusi photographe (Paris: Musée national d’art moderne, 1979), pp. 11, 27 (ill., fig. 15), 38 (ill., fig. 26), 39 (ill., fig. 27), 118 (cat. 15), 119 (cat. 27), as L’oiseau d’or, 1919.
Nina Stanculescu, Brâncusi (Bucharest: Editura Albatros, 1981), n.p. (ill.), as Pasarea de aur, 1919.
Sidney Geist, Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1983), pp. 69 (ill., fig. 117), 200, 223–224 (cat. 117), 266 (cat. 125), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Ionel Jianu, Constantin Brancusi: Viata si opera (Bucharest: Editura stiintifica si enciclopedica, 1983), n.p. (ill., fig. 46), as Pasarea in vazduh (Pasarea de aur), 1919.
Dan Grigorescu, Brancusi and the Romanian Roots of His Art (Bucharest: Meridiane Publishing House, 1984), pp. 102 (ill.), 107–8, 122, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Robert L. Herbert, Eleanor S. Apter, Elise K. Kenney, eds., The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 85, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Tate Gallery, Pound’s Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy exh. cat. (London: Tate Gallery, 1985), p. 103 (ill.), as L’Oiseau d’Or, 1919-22.
Arts Club of Chicago, Portrait of an Era: Rue Winterbotham Carpenter and the Arts Club of Chicago, 1916–1931 exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1986), n.p., (cat. 9, ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Pontus Hulten, Natalia Dumitresco, and Alexandre Istrati, Brancusi (Paris: Flammarion, 1986), pp. 106–107, 135, 180, 294 (cat. 108a, ill.), as L’Oiseau d’or, 1919.
Radu Varia, Brancusi (New York: Rizzoli, 1986), pp. 45 (ill.), 222, 232, 233 (ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Friedrich Teja Bach, Constantin Brancusi: Metamorphosen Plasticher Form (Cologne: Dumont Buchverlag, 1987), pp. 155, 158 (ill., fig. 224), 340 (ill., fig. 369), 344 (ills., figs. 379, 380), 456, 457 (cat. 155), as Goldener Vogel, 1919.
Ion Mocioi, Estetica Operei Lui Constantin Brancusi (Craiova: Scrisul Romanesc, 1987), p. 100 (fig. 45, ill.), as Pasare de aur (Ib), 1919.
Richard Christiansen, “$12 million deal keeps sculpture in Chicago,” Chicago Tribune (December 31, 1989), section 1, pp. 1 (ill.), 10, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Richard Christiansen, “Treasured sculpture saved for city,” Chicago Tribune (December 31, 1989), section 1, pp. 1 (ill.), 10, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Eric Shanes, Modern Masters Series: Constantin Brancusi (New York: Abbeville Press, 1989), pp. 34, 36 (ill., fig. 31), 37, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Alf Siewers, “Institute will get a Brancusi in $12 million Arts Club deal,” Chicago Sun-Times (December 31, 1989), p. 4 (ill.), as Golden Bird.
Alan G. Artner, “Art Institute to place 11 works up for auction,” Chicago Tribune (April 26, 1990), section 15, p, 7, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Sidney Geist, “Brancusi: The Endless Column,” Museum Studies 16, no. 1 (1990), pp. 71, 72 (ill., fig. 2), 86, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Friedrich Teja Bach, Brancusi: Photo Reflexion exh. cat. (Paris: Didier Imbert Fine Art, 1991), pp. 12 (ill., fig. 4), as L’Oiseau d’or.
Florence M. Hetzler, ed., Art and Philosophy: Brancusi, The Courage to Love (New York: Peter Lang, 1991), p. 112, as the Golden Bird, about 1919.
Arts Club of Chicago, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition: 1916–1991 exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1992), p. 72, as Golden Bird.
Margherita Andreotti, “Brancusi’s Golden Bird: A New Species of Modern Sculpture,” Museum Studies v. 19, no. 2 (1993), pp. cover (ill.), 134 (ill.), 135-40 (ill.), 141-43 (ill.), 144 (ill.), 145 (ill.), 146-47 (ill.), 148-50 (ill.), 151 (ill.), 152 (ill.), 153 (ill.), 198-203, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Dan Grigorescu, Brancusi and His Century (Bucharest: Editura Artemis, 1993), pp. 28, 31, n.p. (ill., pl. 49), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Charles F. Stuckey, “Selected Recent Acquisitions of Twentieth-Century Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Burlington Magazine 135, 1087 (Oct. 1993), p. 728, fig. 14, as Golden bird, 1919-20.
Maria Nastase, “Emotia întâlnirii cu Brâncusi la Chicago,” Cotidianul (August 8, 1994), n.p.? (ill.), as Pasarea maiastra.
Sandra Miller, Constantin Brancusi: A Survey of His Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. xviii, 151, n.p. (ill., pl. 112), 231, as Golden Bird, 1916.
Margit Rowell, Friedrich Teja Bach, and Ann Temkin, Constantin Brancusi: 1876–1957 exh. cat. (Paris: Gallimard/Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995), pp. 58 (ill., fig. 9), 62 (ill., fig. 14), 172 (cat. 52, ill., fig. 1), 173 (ill.), 202 (ill.), 314–315 (ill., fig. 10), 380 (ills., figs. 33, 41), 381, as L’Oiseau d’or, 1919/1920.
Marielle Tabart, Brancusi: l’inventeur de la sculpture moderne (Paris: Gallimard/Centre Georges-Pompidou, 1995), pp. 61 (ill.), 72 (ill.), as L’Oiseau d’or, 1919-1920.
James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), pp. 48 (ill.), 158, as Golden Bird, 1919/20.
Arthur C. Danto, The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000), pp. 182, 184, as Golden Bird, 1919-20.
Marielle Tabart, Les carnets de l’atelier Brancusi, Regards historiques: Brancusi et Duchamp (Paris: Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2000), p. 37 (ill., fig. 19).
James N. Wood and Debra N. Mancoff, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), n.p. (ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919/20.
Ilarie Hinoveanu, Memorialul Brancusi: pasi pe nisipul eternitatii sau cazna legamantului cu demiurgul (Craiova: Literatorul, 2001), pp. 20-1, as Golden Bird.
Constantin Brancusi, La dation Brancusi: dessins et archives exh. cat. (Paris: Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, 2003), pp. 132, 144–147, 148, as Golden Bird, 1919.
Radu C. Varia, Brancusi: Photographe exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Hopkins Custot, 2003), pp. 42 (cat. 18), 43 (ill.), as L’Oiseau d’or, circa 1921.
Paola Mola, ed., Brancusi: The White Work exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2005), pp. 113 (ill., fig. 63), 158-9, as The Golden Bird, 1919.
New York, Sculptor’s Gallery, Exhibition of Contemporary French Art, March 24–April 10, 1922, n.p. (cat. 14), as Bird, 1921.
Possibly New York, Art Center, Memorial Exhibition of Representative Works Selected from the John Quinn Collection, January 7–30, 1926, p. 12 (cat. 85), as Bird.
Possibly New York, Wildenstein Galleries, The Exhibition of Tri-National Art: French, British, American, February–March 3, 1926, n.p. (cat. 146), as The Bird.
New York, Brummer Gallery, Brancusi Exhibition, November 17–December 15, 1926, n.p. (cat. 20, ill., pl. 20), as Golden Bird, 1919; traveled to Chicago, Arts Club, An Exhibition of Sculpture by Brancusi, January 4–18, 1927, n.p. (cat. 20).
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, Exhibition of the School of Paris: 1910–1928, March 20–April 12, 1929, n.p. (cat. 29), as Golden Bird.
Chicago, Arts Club, Exhibition of Modern Sculpture and Drawings by Sculptors, June 2, 1933, n.p., (cat. 8, ill.), as The Golden Bird.
Chicago, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, A Selection of Works by Twentieth-Century Artists, June 20–August 20, 1934, n.p. (cat. 3, ill.), as Flight of Bird, 1919.
Detroit, Institute of Arts, Origins of Modern Sculpture, January 22–March 3, 1946, pp. 6–7, as Bird in Flight; traveled to St. Louis, City Art Museum, March 30–May 1, 1946, p. 19 (cat. 81), as Bird in Flight.
Cincinnati Modern Art Society/Curt Valentin, organizers; Four Modern Sculptors: Brancusi, Calder, Lipchitz, Moore, n.p., as Bird in Flight; traveled to Cincinnati Art Museum, October 1–November 15, 1946.
Philadelphia, Museum of Art and the Fairmount Park Art Association, organizers, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, p. 41 (cat. 10), as Golden Bird, 1919; traveled to Chicago, Art Institute, January 22–March 8, 1953 (Chicago only).
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (organizer), Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition, pp. 94–95 (ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919; traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 23–November 15, 1969; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, November 21, 1969–February 15, 1970; Art Institute of Chicago, March 14–April 26, 1970.
Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957: A Retrospective Exhibition, September 23–October 30, 1969, pp. 94–95 (ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919; traveled to New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, November 25, 1969–February 15, 1970; Chicago, Art Institute, March 11–April 26, 1970.
Chicago, Arts Club, Portrait of an Era: Rue Winterbotham Carpenter and the Arts Club of Chicago, 1916–1931, September 15–November 1, 1986, n.p., (cat. 9, ill.), as Golden Bird, 1919.
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Constantin Brancusi, April 14–August 21, 1995, pp. 58 (ill., fig. 9), 62 (ill., fig. 14), 172 (cat. 52, ill., fig. 1), 173 (ill.), 202 (ill.), 314–315 (ill., fig. 10), 380 (ills., figs. 33, 41), 381, as L’Oiseau d’or, 1919/1920; traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 8–December 31, 1995.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.
The artist; John Quinn (died 1924), New York, by Nov. 24, 1920 [John Quinn’s Art Ledger, Vol. 2, copy in curatorial file]; by descent to the John Quinn Estate, New York, 1924 [Zilczer 1978; Andreotti 1993]; sold to the Arts Club of Chicago, Jan. 1927 [Hulten 1986; Andreotti 1993]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990.
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