Brancusi and Rumanian Folk Traditions [Hardcover]

Edith Balas (Author)

Book Description

Series: East European Monographs | Publication Date: August 15, 1987

A sophisticated analysis of the Romanian folk traditions expressed in Brancusi's sculpture by a leading student of the illustrious Romanian artist and his works.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edith Balas in Professor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 121 pages
• Publisher: East European Monographs (August 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880331208
• ISBN-13: 978-0880331203
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,730,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars explaining a great deal of brancusi's roots of inspiration, January 19, 2003

By 

fCh "fCh" (GMT-5, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brancusi and Rumanian Folk Traditions (Hardcover)

professor balas, restitutes the origins of brancusi's works back to the romanian folk traditions. in doing so, the author 1) compares brancusi's output to romanian folk art (employing photos of sculpture, tapestry, etc.), 2) quotes brancusi, 3) places brancusi's works, conceptually, as a reflection of romanian fairy tales and myths.

when balas looks at the touted influence of african art on brancusi she does so very carefully and manages to convincingly limit the scope of such influence--in time and artistic output.

as a footnote, the author, coming herself from romania, shows a great level of understanding of the brancusian formative environment.

the only exception one would take with this work might be with a note associating brancusi with a romanian-hungarian tradition. it is hard to see such association and it should probably be considered an oversight.

for a conceptual approach towards brancusi's place in the space-time continuum called history, mircea eliade in his 1967 essay 'brancusi and mythology' (available in 'ordeal by labyrinth') offers great insight too.