The concluding event of the Henry Moore Foundation’s research season ‘Brâncuşi and Britain’ organised with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
The Romanian Cultural Institute in London is delighted to join forces with Henry Moore Foundation for the Brâncuşi Season, which examines the artist's reception in Britain, its wider resonance in modern and contemporary art and the impact it has made on changing definitions of modern sculpture in Britain.
Over the last few months, insightful events, from curatorial discussions to seminars, explored Brâncuşi’s legacy in Britain.
Brâncuşi is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, hailed by Henry Moore for stripping back sculpture’s centuries-old overgrowth and restoring its shape consciousness. Brâncuşi’s artistic innovations drew the attention of an international network of Modernist peers throughout his career, including in Britain, where his work was first exhibited in 1913.
In more recent decades, historians have reckoned with the complexity of the artist’s work in new ways, teasing out its dynamics of difference and repetition, transience and permanence, abstraction and embodiment. This conference will invite participants to continue this dialogue, taking this plural view of Brâncuşi as a touchstone for questions about the relationship between British sculpture and the international avant-garde.
This conference marks the conclusion of the Henry Moore Foundation’s research season ‘Brâncuşi and Britain’, organised to coincide with the major exhibition of Brâncuşi’s work at Centre Pompidou, Paris in spring 2024. Alex Potts (University of Michigan) will deliver the keynote presentation.
You can book your attendance at this event HERE
PROGRAMME:
10:15–11:00Arrival, registration and refreshments
11:00–11:15Welcome and Introduction. An introduction to the day’s programme and to the venue Laura Bruni (Henry Moore Foundation) and Dr Jonathan Vernon
11:15–12:45 Panel 1: Practical Histories, chaired by Natalie Rudd
- ‘The Hand of Mademoiselle Pogany and Brâncuşi photographs’ David Ward
- Title TBC Toby Christian, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Central Saint Martins
- ‘Constantin Brâncuşi si Republica Socialista Romania in viata si lucru de Nicolae Pope Sculptura Inglese’ Nicholas Pope
- Panel discussion and questions
- Curator’s tour of studios & sculpture gardens
12:45–13:30 Optional tour taking place over part of the lunch break
13:00–14:00Lunch
14:00–15:30Panel 2: Language and its Limits, chaired by Sam Rose
- ‘The Poets’ Brâncuşi’ Jack Quinn
- ‘From Brâncuşi to Hepworth: the Unspeakable Experience of Reality’ Pamela Bianchi
- ‘Kernel, Nucleus, Core: Tim Scott in the 1960s’ Sam Cornish
- Panel discussion and questions
15:30–16:45Panel 3: Forms in Space, chaired by Dr Chris Stephens
- ”FISH WILL SWIM FOREVER…’ unlocking a curatorial and conservation methodology at Kettle’s Yard through Brâncuşi’s Poisson d’or‘ Inga Fraser
- ‘‘Promise not to write about me until I am dead’: the stories of David Lewis and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s visit to Brâncuşi’s studio’ Cassia Pennington
- Panel discussion and questions
17:00–18:00Keynote speech: Professor Alex Potts - ‘Brancusi and Moore – Human/Animal’
18:00–18:15 Closing remarks by Jonathan Vernon
18:15–19:15Wine reception in the Aisled Barn
Photograph courtesy Henry Moore Foundation.
When:27 Jun 2024, 10:15 – 19:15
Where: Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, Dane Tree House, Perry Green, Much Hadham SG10 6EE, UK
