- Title
- Bird in Space
- Date Made
- 1927, cast later
- Medium
- Polished bronze, cast number 4/5
- Dimensions
- Height: 73 in (185.4 cm); diameter: 8 in. (20.32 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2005.70.13
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
Constantin Brancusi’s sculptures of simplified subjects, perfected and idealized, often convey the essence of things over their external appearance. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the theme of the bird in flight preoccupied him, with the artist concentrating on the animal’s movement, rather than its physical characteristics. Brancusi cast sixteen versions of Bird in Space in various sizes and media during his lifetime, two of which are in LACMA’s collection. In 1926, a U.S. Customs official refused to recognize a version of Bird in Space as art, which would have prevented it from being subject to import taxes. Brancusi brought a lawsuit in protest, and in 1928 the iconic sculpture became central to a landmark court decision determining that art need not be realistic, but could be abstract.
Wall label, 2021.
- Provenance
Susse Fondeur, Arcueil, until 2001; [Galerie Beyeler, Basel, sold 2003 to]; Janice and Henri Lazarof, Los Angeles, partial, fractional and promised gift 2005 to; LACMA.
- Selected Bibliography
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Transformation: the LACMA Campaign. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2008.
