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H’ART Museum and Centre Pompidou are now preparing the upcoming exhibition in Amsterdam: Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture. Today, one of the artist’s most famous artworks Sleeping Muse (1910) arrived at the museum. A masterpiece that exemplifies the artist’s commitment to portraying ‘the essence of things’. Very early on, Constantin Brancusi broke with academic tradition and the influence of Auguste Rodin to invent a new sculptural idiom. He abandoned modeling in clay in favor of direct carving in the material and patient polishing. In the Sleeping Muses the sculptor replaced the traditional bust with a fragment of the head, on its side, balanced on the cheek. The details are almost eliminated, presenting this ‘essence’ through simple streamlined forms. More than 30 sculptural masterpieces showcasing this revolutionary technique will soon be on display in Amsterdam, including The Cock (1935), The Endless Column III (c. 1928), and The Kiss (c. 1910). Centre Pompidou rarely lends these very fragile pieces, making this a unique event.
Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture is on show from Saturday September 20, 2025 up to and including Sunday January 18, 2026.
Aad Hoogendoorn
About the Exhibition: A Tribute to the Father of Modern Sculpture
The exhibition unveils the major themes and motifs that Brancusi would constantly explore for five decades. It sheds light on his distinctive creative process, including his choice of direct carving and his talent to bring out ‘the essence of things’. The sculptures, with their smooth and pure forms, reflect his desire to go beyond appearances, to achieve a new and universal language. Celebrating his inventive power and tireless quest for beauty, the exhibition highlights the major revolutions brought about by Brancusi’s art: the reinvention of portraiture, the new status given to pedestals, the play with light and movement, and seriality.
The exhibition also highlights the diversity of his creative output, featuring not only sculptures but also a rare painting, more than 20 photographs and films by the artist. It also includes a film projection about the history of his studio, located on Impasse Ronsin in Paris. This iconic place, designed by Brancusi as a work of art in its own right, fascinated many of his avant-gardist contemporaries. To immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the studio, visitors will also be able to listen to musical excerpts from the artist’s record collection.
Aad Hoogendoorn
Visitors will follow a themed route organized around the artist’s major serial works he devoted his life to: the Essence of Things (Sleeping Muse, Head of a Sleeping Child, Sculpture for the blind), the Portraits (Eileen Lane, Mlle Pogany), the Animals (The Young Bird, The Cock, Seal), the relationship with Architecture (Endless Column, Caryatid), the Ambiguity between Feminine and Masculine (Princess X, Torso of a Young Man, Torso of a Young Girl), the play on Light and Movement (The Newborn II) and finally the series of The Kiss.
Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture is on show from Saturday September 20, 2025, until Sunday January 18, 2026. More information and tickets are available via hartmuseum.nl.
Note to editors, not for publication
Image captions: Installation views of ‘Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture’ at H’ART Museum. Constantin Brancusi, Sleeping Muse (1910). Purchased in 1947 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Philippe Migeat/Dist. GrandPalaisRmn © Succession Brancusi – All rights reserved (Adagp) c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2025. Photo’s: Aad Hoogendoorn
Images can be downloaded at hartmuseum.nl/press. For special image requests, please contact us at pressoffice@hartmuseum.nl. Download the digital press kit here.
Invitation press opening: the press preview of Brancusi, The Birth of Modern Sculpture is on Thursday, September 18 at 10am. Please register at pressoffice@hartmuseum.nl.
Contact H’ART Museum
JP Verhagen & Stella Küçüksen
press and marketing communications department
+31 (0)20 530 87 55/ pressoffice@hartmuseum.nl