Rejected!

"Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one's self."

Constantin Brancusi (artist)

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It’s October 1926 and the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi has a show coming up in New York. From his studio in Paris, he packs up his pieces and ships them across the Atlantic.

Though his boxes arrive safely on American soil, they’re unable to enter the United States because according to customs officials… his art is breaking the law.

The authorities find one Brancusi piece particularly problematic. It’s an oval, bronze sculpture, slender and four-and-a-half feet tall. Entitled Bird in Space, it’s nothing like an actual bird. It has no wings, no feathers. At best, its modest curve suggests a belly.

In the eye of the authorities, this sculpture isn’t a bird and it certainly isn’t art. If he wants to bring it in, Brancusi has to classify his "bird" as what it really is—commercial merchandise—and pay a steep import tax.

Constantin Brancusi, "Bird in Space", 1932–40, 4.9 feet, Guggenheim Museum, New York. ©Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (Adagp) [2016].
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Artist Marcel Duchamp, who’s accompanying his friend’s art, is furious. He objects to the tax and rallies the art world around Brancusi’s cause. From their perspective, Bird in Space is unquestionably art; in fact, it’s the expression of a bird in its purest form. Through its vertical length, the sculpture evokes upward movement and the idea of flight.

Eventually, customs releases Bird in Space, but not as art. It’s official classification: "kitchen utensils and hospital supplies."

The saga doesn’t end there. In 1927, Brancusi takes the US to court, insisting that the existing definition of art is too limited. After extensive testimony and in-court demonstrations, he wins his case! Brancusi’s sculpture becomes the first abstract piece officially recognized by the US as art.

Edward J. Steichen’s photograph of Brancusi’s studio, 1920, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ©The estate of Edward Steichen / ADAGP, Paris, 2016.
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