Brâncuși’s Endless Column embodies the essence of modernism and its fusion of tradition and innovation. First installed as a wooden prototype in Steichen’s garden in Voulangis, it celebrated modularity and abstraction within a personal setting. The final iron iteration, rising over 30 meters in Târgu Jiu, Romania, serves as a memorial to fallen soldiers. Its design and integration into the environment redefined modern sculpture, influencing architecture and the visual language of modernism.

On view at Grob Gallery, Constantin Brâncuși's Endless Column: Voulangis and Târgu Jiu invites viewers to explore one of modernism’s most iconic forms through Brâncuși’s own lens. The exhibition features 30 photographs, including eight self-portraits of Brâncuși working on the Endless Column, providing an intimate glimpse into the mind and hand that shaped this revolutionary work. Regarded as “the most radical sculpture in the history of classic modernism,” the Endless Column stands alongside the great monumental works of the ancient world, yet it is distinctly of its own time—an extraordinary vision of infinity, purity, and ascent. Beginning with a series of doubled pyramids, Brâncuși discovered a language of repeating forms that transcends the physical, suggesting a continuum that defies boundaries and extends into the unknown. This exhibition traces the column’s journey from its origins in Edward Steichen’s garden in Voulangis to its culmination in the monumental installation at Târgu Jiu, Romania—a UNESCO World Heritage site. In the words of art historian Sidney Geist, the column appears as a "repetition without monotony," a form that rises with elegance and intent, both grounded and ethereal. Its rhythm and balance speak to a timeless order and harmony that stand as symbols of endurance. Brâncuși’s photographs of the Steichen Column, now preserved in collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou and Kunsthaus Zurich, offer an invaluable perspective on his dedication to documenting and refining his vision. Through these images and the self-portraits that reveal his intimate creative process, Constantin Brâncuși's Endless Column: Voulangis and Târgu Jiu honors a work that stands at the heart of modernism—a bold testament to the boundless possibilities of form and the enduring human pursuit of transcendence.