MoMA opens major exhibition 'Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio'

NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art opened Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio, a major exhibition surveying Constantin Brancusi's (1876–1957) sculptural achievements through the lens of his Paris studio at impasse Ronsin, on view from October 25, 2026, through February 27, 2027. For more than 40 years, from 1916 until his death, this studio served as a dynamic environment in which Brancusi lived, worked, entertained friends and clients, and exhibited his sculptures. In this singular context, Brancusi blurred boundaries between abstraction and representation, pedestal and object, and a sculpture and its surroundings. The presentation, spanning the Museum's entire sixth floor, will offer visitors a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see rarely lent sculptures, along with Brancusi's hand-carved furniture and bases, films, photographs, tools, and archival materials from Centre Pompidou's Atelier Brancusi.

Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio reveals the studio as a place of work, play, and display, a living site of artistic and social exchange. Bringing together works from the Atelier Brancusi, MoMA's own celebrated collection, and key local loans, the exhibition will offer an intimate and multifaceted portrait of an artist who redefined 20th-century sculpture through the unprecedented simplicity of his forms.

"Brancusi often said he wanted his works to be experienced together, in relation to one another, and this exhibition will give New York audiences an exceptional opportunity to do exactly that," says Umland. "Uniting MoMA's own distinguished Brancusi holdings and important local loans with rarely lent sculptures alongside a rich array of materials from Centre Pompidou's Atelier Brancusi, the exhibition illuminates the complexity of an artist who MoMA has championed from its earliest years, making the Museum an especially fitting home for this unique gathering of his work."

The largely chronological presentation traces the arc of Brancusi's sculptural development over four decades at impasse Ronsin, showing how his works grew in scale and ambition. The exhibition evokes the physical labor of his practice through tools, photographs, and films, while also highlighting his exacting approach to presentation. After 1920, Brancusi increasingly withdrew from public exhibitions in France, preferring to welcome visitors into his studio to experience his sculptures as he wished them to be shown. He also became the primary photographer of his own work, dissatisfied with the efforts of others to capture its spirit, and documented the ever-shifting environment of his studio through photography and film.

Works such as Leda (1926), Bird in Space (1928), and Fish (1930) exemplify Brancusi's groundbreaking sculptural language, in which forms are distilled to their essential elements. Different versions of others, such as Mlle Pogany (1912-1913; 1913; 1933) and The Kiss (c. 1919; 1923-1925; c. 1940), show how motifs recur in multiple materials and configurations. Films by the artist highlight the dynamic potential of his mobile sculptures, while photographs capture the changing arrangements of artworks in the studio, revealing the relational and responsive aspects of his practice.

The exhibition also explores Brancusi's sensitivity to contrast: between rough-hewn bases and highly polished surfaces, hand-crafting and machine finishing, organic irregularity and geometric precision. Born in rural Romania and later embedded in the cosmopolitan milieu of Paris, Brancusi continually negotiated between Old World traditions and modernist innovation.

Among the exhibition's highlights are sculptures presented on original Brancusi bases, emphasizing how these hand-carved wood and stone forms are as formally considered as the works they support. Carved wood furniture further illustrates the fluid relationship between sculpture, pedestal, and domestic object in Brancusi's work.

Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio is part of a series of exhibitions made possible by the temporary closure of the Atelier Brancusi during the renovation of Centre Pompidou's Paris building and is organized with the support of Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne.

To accompany the exhibition, MoMA will publish a richly illustrated companion volume featuring Brancusi's own extraordinary photographs of his sculptures and studio views. These luminous images capture the artist's ever-changing studio over the course of four decades, ranging from close studies of individual sculptures to sweeping views of carefully arranged ensembles. Featuring more than 130 photographs taken by the artist, the lavishly illustrated volume offers a revealing portrait of Brancusi's dynamic environment, which ultimately became a work of art in its own right. 160 pages, 136 illustrations. Hardcover, $60. ISBN: 978-1-63345-197-1. Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and available at MoMA Design Stores and online at store.moma.org. Distributed to the trade through ARTBOOK|D.A.P. in the United States and Canada, and through Thames & Hudson in the rest of the world.

Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio is organized by Anne Umland, guest curator, and Mia Matthias, Assistant Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, with Samantha Small, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture. We are grateful for the collaboration of Ariane Coulondre, Chief Curator, Department of Modern Collections, and Valérie Loth, Associate Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, Centre Pompidou – Musée national d'art moderne, who organized Brancusi: Art Is Just Beginning at Centre Pompidou in 2024. This exhibition is presented with the exceptional support of Centre Pompidou, which permanently houses the Atelier Brancusi in Paris.