AADTHU Art Lecture | Constantin Brancusi: From Romanian Roots to Universality-AADTHU

AADTHU Art Lecture | Constantin Brancusi: From Romanian Roots to Universality

2025.03.28

In anticipation of the 150th anniversary of modernist sculpture pioneer Constantin Brancusi’s birth (2026), Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University and the Romanian Cultural Center jointly hosted the academic lecture “Constantin Brancusi: From Romanian Roots to Universality” on March 11, 2025, bridging cultural dialogues between China and Romania.

The lecture, chaired by Feng Chongli, Associate Director of AADTHU’s Department of Sculpture, drew over 90 attendees, including international guests, faculty, and students. Distinguished panelists included: Stefan Lemny, former head of modern historical documents at the French National Library, Constantin Dan Tomozei, Romanian language expert at China Media Group’s Europe-Latin America Language Programs Center, Dong Shubing, Vice Dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Sheng Wei, researcher at Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University.

Keynote Lecture by Doina Lemny

Delivered by Doina Lemny, former researcher of modern collections at the Centre Pompidou (Paris) and Knight of Romania’s National Order of Merit.

Lemny traced Brancusi’s evolution embodying his creed: “Simplicity is the path to essence.” In 1904, Constantin Brancusi embarked on a pilgrim-like trek across Europe to Paris, arriving at the epicenter of an art world dominated by Auguste Rodin’s towering influence. After a brief apprenticeship under Rodin, the Romanian visionary departed with a prophetic declaration: “Nothing grows in the shadow of great trees.”

Rejecting the laborious process of traditional clay modeling and casting, Brancusi chose to engage in direct dialogue with raw materials. He carved directly into stone and wood, allowing the inherent textures and forms of the medium to dictate his creations. His 1907 Wisdom of the Earth, a raw, unrefined primordial form, marked the inaugural expression of this philosophy, its brutalist contours striking viewers with visceral intensity. As Brancusi asserted: “The essence of sculpture lies in stripping away the superfluous to let the material speak for itself.”

At the 1913 New York Armory Show, his Mademoiselle Pogany ignited controversy. Critics derided its ovoid head and minimalist lines as “an apple perched on an egg.” Yet this “incomprehensible” work shattered academic conventions, transcending mere representation to capture ethereal serenity through purified arcs. It redefined sculpture as a vessel of spiritual essence, cementing its status as a modernist milestone.

As Doina Lemny emphasized, Brancusi’s career revolved around serial exploration. Over decades, he distilled motifs to their quintessential forms. His 1907 The Kiss, a monolithic embrace carved from a single block, its entangled limbs reduced to geometric planes, countered Rodin’s romanticism with primal austerity. By 1935, The Kiss evolved into two intersecting cubes, transforming passion into “a symbol of souls resonating, not bodies entwined.”

Brancusi redefined sculpture’s purpose: “To awaken the soul dormant within materials.” In his Bird in Space series, bronze polished to a mirror-like finish dissolved avian corporeality into a golden arc reflecting sky and spectators. At MoMA, viewers’ mirrored silhouettes merged with the sculpture, rendering art “not a static object, but a dynamic interlocutor of light and space.” This philosophy of reduction, “subtraction as spiritual alchemy”, imbued cold stone with transcendent vitality.

Brancusi’s oeuvre: “silent poems and frozen philosophies, the immutable DNA of modern art”, proved that greatness resides not in complexity, but in purity. By reducing infant heads to ovoids and human forms to columns, he conveyed profound emotion through minimal linework. As Doina Lemny concluded: “He taught us that truth reveals itself only when all redundancy is stripped away.”

Panel Discussion: Brancusi & Chinese Artistic Culture

Dong Shubing remarked, “In his suburban Paris studio, Brancusi worked rigorously，carving, polishing, discarding, and reworking each piece as a dialogue with the world. It was this near-obsessive focus that transformed his sculptures into ‘sacred objects embodying the perfect fusion of matter and spirit.’”

Stefan Lemny, former head of modern historical documents at the French National Library, analyzed Doina Lemny’s pivotal contributions from dual perspectives as both a family member and scholar, emphasizing her “acute archival sensitivity in excavating overlooked narratives” as foundational to her groundbreaking research.

Dan Tomozei, Romanian language expert at China Media Group’s Europe-Latin America Language Programs Center, drew parallels between Brancusi’s The Kiss and Endless Column and motifs from Chinese mythology, notably the Magpie Bridge of Qixi (七夕鹊桥) and the Celestial Turtle bearing the heavens (神龟载天), illuminating “the cross-cultural resonance of archetypal forms in art.”

Sheng Wei, researcher at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University underscored Brancusi’s enduring impact beyond aesthetic kinship: in the 1980s, his works, disseminated through catalogs and exhibitions, profoundly influenced Chinese artists during year of 1985, while his “direct carving” ethos and reverence for materials catalyzed Chinese sculptors’ reconnection with indigenous traditions.

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