Against Biographical Essentialism: Re–evaluating Class and National Identity in the Early Reception of Brancusi

Tatiana Patrone

doi:10.25038/am.v0i28.650

Authors

Tatiana Patrone Department of Philosophy and Religion, Ithaca College, New York, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i28.650

Keywords:

aesthetics; Brancusi; sculpture; nationalism; cosmopolitanism.

Abstract

The paper argues that it is time to rewrite the biography of Constantin Brancusi, moving away from the classic narrative that casts him as a “Romanian–born peasant”. I trace this narrative to the early Brancusi scholarship that saw his national identity and class status as definitive of his aesthetic. Rather than relying on aesthetic categories such as “primitive”, “archaic”, “rural”, “simple”, etc., it is time to come up with a more nuanced and historically accurate account of Brancusi’s early life and to develop a new vocabulary that would allow us to do justice to his life and to his art. A new account is not possible without a critical re–examination of the existing concepts in terms of which his origin story is told.

Author Biography

Tatiana Patrone, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Ithaca College, New York, USA

Tatiana Patrone’s research interests lie in the history of Western thought (Early Modern philosophy and Kant) and in value theory. Her recent scholarship focuses on Constantin Brancusi: she is the author of Sculpting Essences, not Forms: A Theosophical Interpretation of Brancusi. At Ithaca College, NY, she teaches courses in Ancient, Early Modern, and 19th-century philosophy, as well as courses in normative and applied ethics.

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Against Biographical Essentialism: Re–evaluating Class and National Identity in the Early Reception of Brancusi

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Author Biography

Tatiana Patrone, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Ithaca College, New York, USA

References

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