For Art Basel Miami Beach, Bruce Silverstein Gallery proposes an exhibition of original works by Marie Cosindas from her historic 1966 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and a rare grouping of vintage photographs by Constantin Brancusi from the early 1920s.
Now reemerging as a cult figure in this medium, Cosindas was one of America’s best-known photographers in the 1960s-80s following her exhibitions at MoMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966; the Chicago Art Institute, 1967; the International Center of Photography, 1978; and John Szarkowski’s landmark exhibition, Mirrors and Windows, 1978. Cosindas’ work helped lead to the recognition of color photography as an acceptable artistic medium in an era when it was largely associated with advertising and other commercial ends. John Szarkowski, the esteemed curator who gave Cosindas her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, labeled her work as one of the few "conspicuous successes" in color photography prior to William Eggleston. Cosindas’ work is extremely rare and highly sought after by collectors and museum curators for its historic significance and iconic style.
Our stand would also feature a grouping of Constantin Brancusi’s photographs of his most celebrated sculpture, Bird in Space, 1923. Brancusi pursued the creation of his own photographic endeavors with the same rigor and quest for purity as he did with his sculpture. He insisted that only his images of his sculptures were circulated in order to give voice to each sculpture’s unique personality and convey its literal and allegorical relationship to his other works in his studio. His photographs express a unique pictorial vision that moves decisively beyond mere documentation and firmly establish Brancusi as one of the most remarkably innovative image-makers in the history of the medium.
Brancusi’s photographs have been the focus of several exhibitions, including The Original Copy, Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today, held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Constantin Brancusi & Richard Serra: Resting in Time and Space, shown at the Foundation Beyeler; and Brancusi, Film and Photography, the monumental exhibition of Brancusi’s photographs exhibited at the Centre Pompidou.
