Bronze Head of a Black Woman
Artist: Constantin Brancusi (French (born Romania), 1876-1957)
Date: 1926
Dimensions:
head: 15 1/4 (lips to hair ornament) x 6 7/8 in. (38.7 x 17.5 cm);
with base: 26 in. (66 cm);
base: 13 7/8 in. (35.3 cm)
Medium: bronze, marble, and limestone
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Partial gift of Thomas T. Solley and partial purchase with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, and with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1991.108
Label Text:Though it is made by one of the most celebrated European Modernist sculptors, this work presents a complex set of historical and cultural issues through its perpetuation of racial stereotypes. According to Constantin Brâncuși, the sculpture was inspired by his memory of an unidentified woman of African descent whom he saw in 1922 at a colonial exposition in Marseilles, France. Such expositions showcased the cultures of France’s colonies, but functioned to justify and celebrate the so-called “civilizing mission” of French colonialism. Brâncuși’s French title for the sculpture uses a word for a Black woman (négresse) recalling a racist trope going back to the 17th century that objectifies, exoticizes, and sexualizes Black female bodies. Brâncuși further complicates how we experience this sculpture by defying, or denying, expectations of skin color through his use of polished bronze. The medium determined the “blonde” of the sculpture’s title (the first version, carved in alabaster, is titled White Negress).
Typical of his pioneering minimalizing style, Brâncuși distilled his subject into essentials. She is suggested by the spare but bold rendering of hair and prominent lips—the latter feature often used in racist caricatures of the time. The oval head and topknot are reminiscent of African masks from cultures in Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire. Brâncuși and many Modernist artists of the early 20th century appropriated African imagery, admiring what they saw as the simplified, “primitive” aesthetic of tribal objects, but viewing the people who made them through a colonial, ethnocentric lens.
Typical of his pioneering minimalizing style, Brâncuși distilled his subject into essentials. She is suggested by the spare but bold rendering of hair and prominent lips—the latter feature often used in racist caricatures of the time. The oval head and topknot are reminiscent of African masks from cultures in Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire. Brâncuși and many Modernist artists of the early 20th century appropriated African imagery, admiring what they saw as the simplified, “primitive” aesthetic of tribal objects, but viewing the people who made them through a colonial, ethnocentric lens.
Not on view
In Collection(s)