Best known for his pioneering abstract sculpture, Constantin
Brancusi often photographed his sculptures in various stages of completion. He
regularly lit and rearranged finished and unfinished pieces, creating what he
called “mobile groups” for the camera’s lens and for visitors to his studio. In
this photograph, Brancusi’s roughly hewn and smoothly polished geometric compositions
in wood, bronze, and marble form a complex abstract composition, softened by a
touch of the natural world. In a further visual twist, the polished bronze sculpture,
Le nouveau-né (the newborn), serves as a kind
of mirror, reflecting areas of the studio outside the photograph’s frame.