Brancusi and “Grace Light Development”

Brancusi si "Dezvoltare in lumina"

On the 19 th of February we celebrate 135 years since birth of Constantin Brancusi, “a soul from the soul of the Romanian people”, entered the universality due to his creations that have suprised a whole world. Brancusi means:

- Romania and the Romanian people  contribution to the mankind development;

- symbolism in art: the symbiosis between the expression of self abyss and and the stylized expression of Romanian folk art;

- a model for the artists from everywhere and for me personally, because his work, a result of mystical light expressionism, inspired me in carrying out the project: “Grace Light Development”.

Thus, I chose the “Infinite Column” as the symbolic image of the book: “Steps to Success”, because it conceives the essence of ascent in the light: an endless staircase to heaven, vertical aspiration to God being the real vocation of man. Brancusi see the column as “a spiral of life”, so life itself is changing and perfecting, human development evolving on an endless column.

All of Brancusi’ works are symbols, the artist trying to describe through apparently simple but intricate forms, “the real meaning of things”. He motivates all his search as a desire for release from the limits of matter and looking for the shape of the spirit.

“Simultaneously, I had to merge all these forms - in a perfect unity. Even contradictory forms had to merge into a new community, the final one, in my philosophy of life, the separation of matter and spirit and any kind of duality are just illusions. Soul and clay form a unit. Through of this oval of <> I’ve combined two indispensable movements - one above the oval and the other one below. I ask myself: how to balance the shapes to give to <> a sense of flight - without effort? As you can see, I somehow managed to make <>  to float.” (Constantin Brancusi)

The picture above shows in brief the sculptor spiritual and artistic evolution in his effort to unify substance, represented by the fowl with the spirit which conceives through the flight. Here’s how on the process of growing himself, going deeper into the essence of things, there is a need to simplify, roundness of material forms turning into the thickness and sharpness of spirit.

“Simplicity is not a goal in the art, but you reach it as you get closer the real meaning of things.” (C. Brancusi)

The symbolism of Targu Jiu ensemble in the context of GLD

“Monumental ensemble, consisting of <<Table of Silence>>, <<Kiss Gate>> and <<Endless Column>> located on the axis which connects them, are expressions of artistic and philosophical essence of Brancusi works, the synthesis of Romanian spirituality and of universal values.”

Like other works, the column has undergone many transformations: of name and meaning. Thus, the first intention was to lift a monument in honour of heroes of the World War I, that’s why the rhomboidal shapes for some people look like “stacked coffins”. However transcending the original meaning, many of us foresee a chain of hourglasses, suggesting flowing the endless time until it loses into eternity,  Brancusi himself sometimes calling it: “time inverted pendulum”.

“But regardless of what names are assigned, it is the tree of heaven, heavenly ladder that connects the earthly and heavenly world forever. It is a suggestive representation of the Absolute, perfected through repetition and symmetry of all ages, worlds and generations, the symbol of greatness and vitality and undulations of the infinite universe.”

“Table of Silence” is round, inviting us to communion by eloquent silence, this being the right atmosphere for meeting: God-man, man with himself and loading with the subtle energy required for devoting to the others.

“Kiss Gate” - A man in his life has to passe two critical thresholds: of marriage, as an entry through a kissing gate, through which “the two will become one flesh” and the death’s doorstep, passing into eternity. Two of the most important and scary mysteries for life and human becoming.

”The artist has codified, in the sculptural ensemble, eternity or the entire nation. From the ethnological point of view, Targu-Jiu monuments are the representation of the cosmic human life, from birth, symbolized by the “Table of Silence” and ending with passing into nonexistence, symbolized by the “Endless Column”. The distance between them, being the time of human life, is interrupted by “Kiss Gate”, the symbol of marriage and starting a new cycle of life.”

Brancusi has tried sublimating matter into spirit through art, as “Grace Light Development” proposes human transfiguration by divine grace, the implementation of the vision: “Kind People - Sublime Work, by Grace Light Development”.

“People, said Brancusi, do not recognize the miracle that is life itself. What people are missing is the cosmic dimension of our time, the feeling of the adventure of spirit  beyond reality.”