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Constantin Bracusi Heritage Constantin Brancusi was born on February 19th, 1879 in the village of Hobita. He goes to primary school in Pestisani and Bradiceni. At 11 years old he runs away from home, for the first time, till Targu Jiu. Second time he runs farther to Slatina, and next to Craiova, where he works in several places, till 1894 when he begins the Art and Vocational School, which he finishes in 4 years instead of 5. After the graduation he goes to Bucharest to The Belle-Arte School. His results in the years of study in Bucharest, under the guidance of Vladimir Hegel, are very good - several bronze medals and a silver one. From this period are the works Vitellius, Georgescu-Giorjan Portrait and Ecorseul In 1903, a year after graduation goes to Munich, and from here, by foot, to Paris. Here he works to support himself but in 1905 he is admitted at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, in the Antonin Mercier studio. He makes Stephane Lupescu's Portait, Child, Vainglory etc. In 1907 he was admitted for practicing at Rodin's studio. In 1910 begins the cycle of its Birds and of Miss Pogany. In 1914 has his first individual exhibition in New York. The period between 1919 and 1939 is the most creative of his activity. That was the time of his masterpieces. He has had many individual and 57 collective exhibitions in several countries. In the winter of 1937-1938 he travels to India. In 1937, by the initiative of Areta Tatarescu, the president of the National League of the Women of Gorj County, he begins the sculptural ensemble from Targu Jiu. Towards the end of his life, old and ill, he has said: "I am no longer of this world, I am far from myself, detached from my own body. I am among the essential things." He dies on March 16, 1957, in Paris. The Monumental Ensemble from Târgu Jiu was raised in the honor of the dead heroes from First World War. It express the cosmic feeling of Brâncusi manifested by the reunion of the four fundamental elements of the world:
· water - the start from the Jiu river; · earth - the alley from the public garden, "Masa tăcerii" (Table of Silence) incorporated in the earth and the Heroes way; · fire - the flame which ensures the triumph of life upon death in "Poarta Sărutului" (Kiss Gate); · air - the spring of "Coloana fără sfârsit" (Endless Column) which goes through the air in its way toward the sky. The three sculptures - Table of Silence, Kiss Gate and The Endless Column - are disposed on an axis oriented West-East, with a length of 1275 m. Table of Silence is worked in limestone with the following sizes: table 2.15 m diameter and 0.43 thick, the leg 2 m diameter and 0.45 thick. Initially the 12 chairs were much closer to the table and disposed in pairs. The Table of Silence represents the dinner before the fight. To this explanation is added a mythical-philosophical component that the table is a time mill. The grounded time is put in the clepsydra-chairs, which measures it. All this in silence. The only tonic element is given by the flowing of the Jiu River nearby. The chairs alley represents those who participate without any implication, waiting for the end; they represent the imposed order and the circumstances. Kiss Gate, the second monument of the ensemble, is made from Banpotoc travertine. The carvers in stone helped Brancusi: Ion Alexandrescu from Bucharest and Golea from Dobrita. The sizes of this work are 5.14 high and 5.45 length. The pillars have 1.69 m width. The whole work is disposed on a steel axle in a concrete foundation having 5 m on each side. The Kiss Gate is the gate to cross through another life. The kiss motive present on the pillars of the gate could be also the eye, which looks inside. The Heroes Way is the way of the "heroes souls", is the road from the beginning till the end of the life. The Endless Column, considered by Sydney Geist "the top point of the modern art", is at the East end of the axis formed by the Heroes street. With 29.33 m high, the column is built from 17 rhomboidal cast iron modules initially brassed. The modules with 1.80 m high and approximately 860 kg weight are assembled on a steel axle embedded in a concrete foundation having 5 m on each side. The elements of the column were made in The Central Workshop in Petrosani. The engineer Stefan Georgescu-Gorjan technically coordinated the whole assembling process. The ensemble was ready on October 27, 1938. The Endless Column represents a "spiritual testament" of the great artist, a veritable axis mundi to hold the sky. None of the Romanian fine artists has ever enjoyed, on an international level, a greater fame and prestige than Brancusi. His works are not very numerous, owing to the perfectionist nature of the artist and to his long quest on the road leading towards the completion of each sculpture - "Perfection is indispensable to an important work". The prestigious English art magazine "The Connoisseur" noted in its issue of September, 1963, under the signature of the well known critic, Alastair Gordon, that "maybe, the most important influence over sculpture lately was exerted by Constantin Brancusi," and he continued: "The forthcoming generations might attribute an influence over the art of this century equal to that of Picasso," only to conclude that "I dare consider that Constantin Brancusi is one of the most important names in the history of art". Remaining in his country of origin, besides the monumental ensemble of Tg.Jiu are only a few works of smaller dimensions: "Prayer", "The kiss", "Sleeping Muse", "A Small Gate" as well as "Miss Pogany".