Study related to The First Step

1910s

“Mobile groups”: rearranging the sculptures

During the 1910s Brâncuși arranges sculptures and pedestals in changing compositions that he calls “mobile groups”: he moves the works and watches how each change alters the space around them. When he sells a sculpture he often puts a plaster version in the same position, and by the 1920s the studio is also an exhibition space whose arrangement forms part of the work.

autumn 1912

The Grand Palais aviation show with Duchamp and Léger

In the fall of 1912 Brâncuși visits an aviation exhibition at the Grand Palais with Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Léger; the three stop before an airplane propeller, and its mechanical precision leads them into a conversation about machine-made forms and the direction sculpture might take. In May of that year he had rented a second studio at 47 rue du Montparnasse, across from the first.

17 February 1913

The Armory Show in New York: five sculptures

In December 1912 the Armory Show organisers Arthur Bowen Davies, Walt Kuhn and Walter Pach visit Paris in search of works; the catalogue lists five sculptures by Brâncuși — “The Kiss”, “Sleeping Muse”, “A Muse”, “Mademoiselle Pogany” and “Torso”. The exhibition opens in New York on 17 February 1913 and travels to Chicago and Boston; his compact forms provoke laughter, caricatures and arguments in the press, and “Mademoiselle Pogany” is compared to an egg.

1914

The patron John Quinn

The lawyer and collector John Quinn, a supporter of the Armory Show, buys works from Brâncuși and remains in contact with him until his death in 1924; in 1914 he acquires a version of “Mademoiselle Pogany” from 291.

12 March – 4 April 1914

His first US solo show at the gallery 291

Edward Steichen selects the works for Brâncuși’s first solo exhibition in the United States: eight sculptures, including “Măiastra” and “Mademoiselle Pogany”, are shown at 291, the gallery run by Alfred Stieglitz. Agnes and Eugene Meyer pay for their transportation and begin buying works directly from Brâncuși.

1915–1917

The First World War: a refusal to serve

Brâncuși stays in Paris after the outbreak of World War I; in 1915 he donates works to an exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune that raises money for Polish artists affected by the war. As a Romanian citizen he remains liable for military service, but he refuses to serve in 1916 and receives a permanent exemption on 8 November 1917.