(Rumanian, C. Brâncusj, or Brîncuşi; French, C. Brancusi). Born Feb. 21, 1876, in the village of Khobitsa, in Oltenia; died Mar. 16, 1957, in Paris. Rumanian sculptor.

Brancuşi studied in fine arts schools in Bucharest (1898-1902) and Paris (1904-07). Most of his life he worked in Paris. He made use of the expressiveness of flowing stylized contours, integrated volumes, and the textures of his materials to create simplified symbolic images (for example, The Kiss, in stone, 1908; Prometheus, marble and bronze, 1911; and the Bird in Space series, bronze, 1912-40). With time he increased the laconic nature and geometric abstractness of his forms. In a number of his works he emerges as one of the founders of the abstract principle in European sculpture. In the central industrial memorial complex of architecture and sculpture on the Street of Heroes in the city of Targu-Jiu (1937-38; Endless Column, metal; Table of Silence, stone; and Gate of the Kiss, stone), he achieved a lapidary simplicity of form, utilizing the traditions of Rumanian national art.