"When you see a fish, you do not think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating flashing body seen through water.
Well, I’ve tried to express just that. If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement and hold you by a pattern, or a shape of reality.
I want just the flash of its spirit."
Brâncuși
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If you’ve seen the video of Brâncuși spinning the Fish, let’s get something straight - that isn't part of the current visitor experience. If we start a petition, maybe they'll let one lucky soul a year give it a whirl. I’m not so sure the curators would be very happy though, so don’t try it.
I definitely wanted to.
I wish Brâncuși was still around. He used to welcome guests into his workshop with champagne and cheese. That is, if you telephoned beforehand to announce your visit. I don’t think you’d get in otherwise. Once there, you had to ring the gong at the front to be let in. Then he showed you around, telling stories about each of the pieces in his studio.
Brâncuși’s vision for the Fish was to swirl beside a lake, the wind its only guide, in a vast, open park. Today, his fish are in museums, still and observed, much like goldfish in their glass bowls at home. If your goldfish are not moving, you probably should be worried.
"This is not a goldfish, or a porpoise, or a carp, it is a form that is present in everything that moves through the water. Yes, even a submarine. It is what is essential in the shape of movement, not a particular bird or a particular fish but what it is to be bird-like or fish-like."
He was obsessed with bringing movement to life. For Brâncuși, sculpture was not static. He used reflective metal for his Fish to appear as moving. He installed his marble Fish on a pin, so that he could spin it. He engineered a little motor to rotate Leda.
The essence of The Fish is movement. Brâncuși’s essence was innovation.
