Colonne sans fin à Târgu-Jiu, 1937-1938

Brancusi’s motif of the ‘infinite tower’ was produced in a number of different renditions, cumulating in Brancusi’s final masterpiece, Colonne sans fin à Târgu-Jiu, 1937-1938 in his native Romania. The monument, made from metal, was a commissioned to pay tribute to the Romanian soldiers who defended the town against the German forces during WWI.  It references the axis mundi, an infinite portal between heaven and earth, or the axis of the world. Brancusi has chosen to photograph it back lit with the sun’s rays streaming down from the stratocumulus clouds in the background, giving it an other worldly feel. Within the composition, the clouds create an horizontal axis which further magnify and elevate the spiritual essence of the work within the terrestrial realm.