Brancusi against the United States

Synopsis

The Brâncuși US trial was a landmark legal case from 1928, in which Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși challenged the decision of the American authorities to tax his work Bird in Space as an ordinary object, and not as a work of art. The American administration argued that the piece did not realistically represent a bird, so it could not be considered art. Brâncuși's lawyers questioned renowned artists and pleaded for the recognition of modern art. The court ruled in favor of Brâncuși, setting an important precedent for modern art. The decision recognized the artistic value of abstract forms and influenced the perception of art in the United States. This trial marked a crucial moment in the history of modern art, paving the way for the acceptance and appreciation of unconventional artistic expressions and contributed to the recognition of Brâncuși as an innovator of modern sculpture.

"Now, for this revived Trial, the trial initiated by Brâncuşi, the question that arises refers to the definition of the work of art that disrupts a system of repertory values; that work that affirms and adopts a totally new aesthetic. Rereading today's text, the first impulse would be to classify as ignorant, incompetent all those social actors called to testify. But that would be a simplistic and arrogant attitude, because the Brâncuşi Trial also questions the astonishment towards what is not considered to be art from the beginning, the difficulty of confronting the emergence of the unknown, with the enigma proposed by the genius artist. How can we responsibly integrate, and not just servilely, towards modernity what appears and confuses at a given moment? How can we define ourselves and make selections?"

George Banu