AEP Art Blog

To see far is one thing, to go there is another.

Part One

The Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncusi at Targu Jiu, also known as the Monumental Ensemble at Targu Jiu, is a homage to the Romanian heroes of the First World War.

The three sculptural components - Table of Silence, the Gate of the Kiss and the Endless Column – are disposed on the same axe, orientated west to east, with a length of 1275 m. The Column is located right on the axis of 45° parallel north latitude. The entire ensemble was inaugurated in October 1938.

The Endless Column

Brancusi came with the idea to make just a column without ending. The theme of “the Endless Column” obsessed him for a long time, who firstly carved it in wood. This is a special structure different from classic columns with base and column head, as it has no beginning or end. It represents the Column of the infinite sacrifice of the Romanian heroes for the reunion of the nation. The Column seams to spring from earth, soaring into the sky. The Endless Column has a height of 29.33 meters and a weight of 14.226 kg. At the base it is fixed into an impressing circular pedestal covered with ground, which ensures its stability. The structure consists in 17 clepsydra elements. It is made of cast iron plates. Pyramid stumps, empty on inside, are fixed together on a central steel core with square section, uniform over the height of the Endless Column. The core of the column was brought from Resita, the best steel that was that times, which was also used for building the Eiffel Tower.

The Table of Silence

The testamentary work, Table of Silence appears as final expression of the sculptor’s philosophic meditation on the silence significance. The message of the work invites us to decipher the silence as product of wisdom, of penetration on the land of peace and harmony, of the reconciliation with itself and the others. The twelve clepsydra-chairs – through shape and function, place of rest, silence and meditation – seams to place in space and time, in equality, all human beings that would occupy the places around the round table, symbol of the concentric union, equality, solidarity and harmony. “The line of the Table of Silence, said Brancusi, will suggest the closed curve of the circle which gathers, connects and approaches. The 12 seats represent the twelve disciples of Jesus, who congregate around the table representing Christ their teacher. Besides creating a sense of harmony and balance, the circular arrangement places emphasis on the centre, at which lies the table.The seats are shaped like hourglasses to symbolize the passage of time. The hourglass seats reflect the instrument used to measure time, and are symbolic of time itself. The Table represents the moment before the battle, the dinner before the fight, and could also be a representation of Jesus.

The Gate of Kiss
The Gate of Kiss is situated on the alley at the entrance of the City Park. It is graved from porous stone, extracted from quarries located in the neighborhood, being composed of thick, rectangular columns. On the façades of each column there is the symbol of the kiss, so characteristic for Brancusi’s work. It looks like an arch of triumph, symbolizing the triumph of life over death. Kiss Gate, said Brancusi, “speaks about the great joy that love remains immortal”.The Gate of Kiss symbolizes the passage of soldiers from this life to the next. The motif on the pillars (the detail that you see) represents eyes watching, perhaps the eyes of God or another higher power.

What is a monumental sculpture?

A monumental sculpture combines two concepts, one of function, one of size. It is often used for all sculptures that are large. However, it can also be intended to convey an idea that the work is grand, noble, elevated in idea but yet simple in its execution and its concept.

In my opinion, I feel that Brancusi's ensemble cannot really be considered as monumental sculptures as a whole. Although they are indeed large and are of human size, their function isn't really brought out clear and explicit, which makes viewers wonder what these sculptures are for. However, if I were to look at them separately and not together in an ensemble, I would choose The Gate of Kiss as the most effective sculpture that fits the category of a "monumental sculpture". Compared to the Endless Column, it is not as abstract and the style of this gate has more geometrical elements for viewers to speculate at and develop guesses for its significance and why it is arranged in this way. It is, technically, more "complicated" in terms of the number and shapes of its form, and the simplicity is not too much such that it is still recognizable as a sculpture with meaning, with function. Comparing it to The Table of Silence as well, the table and chairs itself are very simplistic and common-looking and besides the way in which the chairs surround the table, there is not much that makes it stand out from being a normal set of tables and chairs for passers-by to sit and rest on. That puzzle has been over-simplified and thus degraded its significance. Therefore, I feel that the Gate of Kiss is the most effective as a monumental sculpture as it still retains some of its function and not lost by over-simplification.

Augustus St. Gauden's Abraham Lincoln: The Man

The statue known as the “Standing Lincoln,” located in the southern tip of Chicago’s Lincoln Park, is the

most popular monument to Abraham Lincoln in the United States.

The monument was financed by a bequest from Chicago lumber merchant Eli Bates (1806–1881) who left

$40,000 in his will for an Abraham Lincoln monument in Lincoln Park. The committee formed to erect the

monument staged a design competition to choose the artist, but in the end they rejected all of the original

entries and selected Augustus St. Gaudens (1848–1907) instead. Born in Dublin, Ireland, St. Gaudens was

raised in New York City, where he studied art at the Cooper Union and National Academy of Design before continuing his education at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. When he returned to the United States, St. Gaudens became a leading figure in the “American Renaissance” art movement.

St. Gaudens began working on the monument in 1884. To capture Lincoln’s appearance, St. Gaudens turned to two very different kinds of models. For the face and hands, he relied on a plaster life mask and casts of Lincoln’s hands that another sculptor, Leonard Volk, had made in 1860. Lincoln had visited Volk’s studio on Clark Street in Chicago shortly before the Republican convention of that year and Volk had made the casts then. To arrive at the pose, St. Gaudens relied on a live model.

As he worked out the design for the statue, St. Gaudens experimented with a variety of poses: seated and standing, arms crossed in front of his body, or holding a document. Lincoln is standing, but stands in front of a chair from which he has just risen. He is before the people to counsel and direct them, but has just turned from that other phase of his activity in which he was their executive and their protector. Two ideas are thus expressed in the composition, but not separately, independently expressed to the detriment of unity. The artist has blended them to the eye as our own thought blends them when we speak of Lincoln. The pose reveals the man of action, but represents a man ready for action, not really engaged in it; and the chair clearly typical of the Chair of State reveals his title to act no less than his methods of self-preparation. It can be seen that the completeness of expression has been arrived at through a symbolic, idealistic conception.

Comparing both Brancusi's sculptural ensemble and St. Gauden's Abraham Lincoln, I can conclude that St. Gauden's is considered more of a monumental sculpture as elements of its meaning behind the sculpture is brought across more explicitly compared to Brancusi's. Brancusi has reduced his sculpture to the simplest, and it would be harder for viewers to grasp the significance of such a sculpture and the role it plays in relation to the war. It is unable to convey its message as clearly as St. Gauden's Abraham Lincoln, and viewers will not have a greater impression of it in their minds. In this aspect, St. Gauden's is more effective as it is more representational of the term "monumental", which means being great in size and in importance.

Part Two

Like Oldenburg, I used the image of a famous place with a famous landmark and replaced the landmark with an incongruous image, in which I used a pizza and a pencil.

I chose the Big Ben clock tower as my famous landmark. As I feel that the tip of the clock tower greatly resemble a pencil (and the entire structure), I replaced its tip with the tip of a pencil. In place of the actual clock, I placed a whole pizza instead.

I feel that this change which I made adds another aspect as to us viewing such a landmark; the first feeling that it brings about is humour. Being such an important landmark, one would normally look up at it with great awe and amazement, and rarely would anyone find delight and humour in viewing such a landmark without a furtive imagination, which in this case is of the clock being the pizza and the tower being a pencil. This would lead to one imagining writing on paper with the Big Ben clock tower, and the image created can be quite ridiculous and funny.

In here, an everyday food item and an everyday common object is raised to a monumental scale. The message intended to be brought across could be of how our life in a day (24 hours by the clock) is mostly occupied by work as represented by the pencil, and food as represented by the pizza. It can be a representation of people's lifestyles nowadays.

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Augustus St. Gauden's Abraham Lincoln: The Man

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