The Endless Column

"The Endless Column" (Romanian: "Coloana fără sfârşit" or "Coloana infinitului") is a sculpture created by Constantin Brâncuşi and inaugurated in Târgu Jiu, Romania on 27 October 1938.

This sculpture, based on the symbolism of the axis mundi, was made as a tribute to the young Romanians who died in World War I fighting Germany, and is a stylization of the funerary pillars used in Southern Romania.

In the 1950s, the Romanian communist government considered Brâncuşi's art an example of "bourgeois" sculpture and planned to demolish it, but the plan was never executed. It was restored between 1998 and 2000 through a collaborative effort of the Romanian Government, World Monuments Fund, the World Bank and other Romanian and international groups.

The Endless Column is 29.33 meters (96.23 ft) high and composed of 17 rhombus-shaped modules made out of cast iron. (Top module, no.17, is only a half-module).

The artwork is depicted in Târgu Jiu's coat of arms.

György Ligeti's etude (study) for piano solo no. 14 is named "Coloana fără sfârşit", after the sculpture. It is composed within proportions of Brancusi's endless column (16 modules + one half module), as a spyral of "endlessly" rising musical scales.

ee also

* Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuşi from Târgu Jiu

External links

* [http://www.wmf.org/ROM_endless_column_2007.html World Monuments Fund]
* [http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1208263 Coloana Infinitului]

"Endless Column Restored" [http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag02/janfeb02/column/column.shtml] by Alexandra Parigoris. Sculpture Magazine, Jan./Feb. 2002 Vol.21 No.1. A publication of the International Sculpture Center.

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