Take five: moments in the life of Constantin Brâncuşi

The work of Constantin Brâncuşi (1876–1957) takes centre stage this spring, as a series of events focusing on the Romanian artist’s relationship with Britain, hosted by the Henry Moore Foundation (visit www. henry-moore.org for dates and venues), coincides with a major exhibition opening today in Paris’s Centre Pompidou, which features about 200 of his sculptures, plus photographs, drawings, films and studio furniture and tools (‘Brâncuşi’, until July 1).

1. Born in Hobitza, Romania, Brâncuşi moved to France in 1904, where he enrolled at the École des Beaux-arts. He later joined the studio of Auguste Rodin, only to leave it because he wanted to move beyond the external form to capture ‘the essence of things’

2. Despite this, Rodin was one of his early sources of inspiration, to which he added Cycladic, Asian and African art, the works of Paul Gauguin and traditional Romanian folk art

3. One of his sculptures, his 1915–16 bronze Princess X, was judged obscene and removed from the Salon des Indépendants because it was deemed phallic

4. In the 1920s, American customs officials tried to classify Brâncuşi’s Bird in Space (pictured), a slender, polished bronze part of a series, as a metal object (and, therefore, subject to custom duty). The courts, however, declared it a work of art (and thus exempt)

5. Naturalised French, in 1957, Brâncuşi bequeathed his studio and all it contained to his adopted country.

It was reconstructed at the Centre Pompidou, where it now forms the centrepiece of the Brâncuşi exhibition