Maiastra

c. 1911

Constantin Brâncuși

Artist, Romanian, 1876 - 1957

A polished bronze, free-standing sculpture of an abstracted bird stands on a marble plinth set on a tall wood base. The bird form is created with an oblong, egg-shaped body. The head curves up like a hook and the end parts as if in a beak. The wings are tucked against the body. The bronze sculpture sits on a cream-white, tall marble cube. Shaped like an angular hourglass, the wood base is almost twice as high as the bronze sculpture and marble cube combined.
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Maiastra is among the first sculptures by Constantin Brancusi to address the abstracted form of a bird. The work is inspired by the legendary bird of Romanian folklore, the Pasarea maiastra (Master bird), a mythic creature known for its golden plumage and arresting song. Brancusi may also have been influenced by the Ballets Russes' production of L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird), based on the Russian version of a similar mythic bird; it premiered at the Théâtre National de l'Opera in Paris on June 25, 1910, with music by Igor Stravinsky.

Maiastra appears perched on its base, radiant in its golden color, its breast swelling and beak open as if about to sing. Brancusi stated about the pose, "I wanted to show the Maiastra as raising its head, but without putting any implications of pride, haughtiness or defiance into this gesture. That was the difficult problem and it is only after much hard work that I managed to incorporate this gesture into the motion of flight." The subtlety and refinement of Brancusi's sculptural language are seen in the treatment of the eyes, the arch of the neck, the slight turn of the head, and the highly polished reflective surface of the bronze, as well as the dialogue between organic and hard-edge surfaces and lines and between the materials and shapes of the sculpture, its base, and its pedestal.

In his obsessive search for "the essence of the work," Brancusi's Maiastra series represents the first step in a journey that would continue in the Golden Bird (L'Oiseau d'or) series and be fully realized only in the Bird in Space series (two examples of which are in the National Gallery's collection). In each series, the subject of the bird becomes further refined, simplified, and reduced to its purest formal essentials. Poised between reality and abstraction, between the material and the transcendent, Maiastra perfectly embodies Brancusi's aspirations as an artist. In 1926 he wrote: "In art, one does not aim for simplicity; one achieves it unintentionally as one gets closer to the real meaning of things."

On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery 415-C


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    polished bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Katharine Graham

  • Dimensions

    overall (sculpture): 55.9 × 18.9 × 18.7 cm (22 × 7 7/16 × 7 3/8 in.)
    overall (rectangular marble base): 20.32 × 13.97 × 16.51 cm (8 × 5 1/2 × 6 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1980.75.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased from the artist 1911/1912 by Agnes E. [Mrs. Eugene, Jr., 1887-1970] Meyer, Mount Kisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.; gift 1957/1958 to her daughter, Katharine Meyer Graham [1917-2001], Washington, D.C.;[1] gift 1980 to NGA.
[1] Provenance from Athena T. Spear, Brancusi's Birds, New York, 1968: no. 3, and letter of 17 March 1965 from Mrs. Meyer to Mrs. Graham(copy in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1914

  • Possibly [Brancusi exhibition], 291 Gallery, New York, 1914, no. 6.

1982

  • Venice Biennale, Venice, 1982, no. 2.

2001

  • Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001, no. 38, repro. as Maiastra (Bird Before It Flew).

Bibliography

1963

  • Jianou, Ionel. Brancusi. New York, 1963: 97.

1968

  • Geist, Sidney. Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture. New York, 1968: 43, pl. 70b.

1969

  • Spear, Athena. Brancusi's Birds. New York, 1969, no. 3, pls. 5 and 6.

1974

  • Arnason, H.H. "Review of Athena T. Spear, Brancusi's Birds." Art Bulletin 56, no. 1 (March 1974): 145-147.

1975

  • Geist, Sidney. Brancusi: The Sculpture and Drawings. New York, 1975, no. 77, repro.

1980

  • Hyland, Douglas K.S. "Agnes Ernst Meyer, Patron of American Modernism." The American Art Journal 12, no. 1 (Winter 1980): 73.

1989

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: repro. 22, 23.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 33, repro.

1997

  • Niven, Penelope. Steichen: A Biography. New York, 1997: 379, 730-731.

Inscriptions

bottom right, back: CIRE / C. VALSUANI / PERDUE

Markings

FM: Valsuani

Wikidata ID

Q63854585


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