[Script Info]
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[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:02.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[background music] We're in the Museum of Modern Art
Dialogue: 0,0:00:02.37,0:00:06.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we're looking at Constantin Brancusi's "Bird in Space" from 1928.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.54,0:00:08.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Brancusi was a Romanian who worked
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.62,0:00:12.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for almost his entire career in Paris.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.03,0:00:14.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He worked in lots of media and often pushed
Dialogue: 0,0:00:14.95,0:00:19.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the materials to really new expressions.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:19.46,0:00:20.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is bronze.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.80,0:00:23.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's bronze. It's been highly polished.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.79,0:00:25.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So it looks like gold...
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.79,0:00:28.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it's not just bronze, because for Brancusi
Dialogue: 0,0:00:28.26,0:00:29.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the pedestal was part of the sculpture.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.75,0:00:31.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's got a stone pedestal.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.74,0:00:34.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's got limestone below that and very often you'd see
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.61,0:00:37.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a wooden pedestal even below that creating a hierarchy
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.21,0:00:42.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of materials what he considered the most primitive to the most industrial.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.18,0:00:45.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's kind of a Neoplatonic idea of ascending
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.10,0:00:47.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from the material up to the immaterial.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.87,0:00:49.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that's exactly right.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.68,0:00:53.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The reflectivity of the bronze drives that point home.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.48,0:00:58.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is really about light and movement, right?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:58.02,0:01:01.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is not a sculpture that is in any way
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.14,0:01:02.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a literal depiction of a bird,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.68,0:01:06.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's a depiction of this gentle organic arching
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.66,0:01:07.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of this soaring figure.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.94,0:01:10.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's not a bird in so much as a representation
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.25,0:01:12.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the thing that birds to that we love.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:12.56,0:01:15.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As one moves around it and looks at it,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.81,0:01:19.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the light that reflects on it shifts and changes and flickers,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.90,0:01:23.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so it does have a sense of something almost kinetic.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:23.48,0:01:26.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As if it were moving and soaring,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:26.19,0:01:28.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it's not a propulsion that seems mechanical,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.70,0:01:32.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even though it's metal and we see it as an industrial material.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.90,0:01:35.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's a great story about this sculpture.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:35.18,0:01:40.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was included in a famous 1936 exhibition at MoMA
Dialogue: 0,0:01:40.45,0:01:41.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,called "Cubism and Abstract Art"
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.89,0:01:43.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and when this came over from France,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.81,0:01:47.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the customs agents kept it and wouldn't let it out.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.32,0:01:47.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.90,0:01:50.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because MoMA was claiming it is a work of art
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.22,0:01:51.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they didn't believe it.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.66,0:01:54.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is 1936 and they thought it had some industrial use
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.97,0:01:56.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and therefore could be taxed
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.25,0:01:57.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and MoMA said "No, it's a work of art,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:57.88,0:01:59.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it should not be taxed"
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.53,0:02:00.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it was actually held in.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.100,0:02:02.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There was a court case about it.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.26,0:02:04.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But what purpose could this possibly serve?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.91,0:02:07.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If I remember correctly the papers suggested
Dialogue: 0,0:02:07.61,0:02:11.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it may be a propeller or a piece of a propeller.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.50,0:02:15.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It does really speak to the radicality
Dialogue: 0,0:02:15.10,0:02:18.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- which I think we forget - of just how abstract this is.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.33,0:02:21.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It doesn't really in some ways look so abstract.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:21.98,0:02:25.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It does suggest flight and upward movement
Dialogue: 0,0:02:25.08,0:02:29.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we're used to things suggesting things like that.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.88,0:02:31.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[background music]