Head
- Artist: Constantin Brancusi
- Date: c.1919–23
- Medium: Oak
- Dimensions: object: 292 x 205 x 210 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Head” by Constantin Brancusi. Carved in oak, the piece is a study in extreme simplicity – a clean, oval form that feels almost sculpted by nature itself. Brancusi was fascinated by direct carving, working with the raw grain of wood just as he would have approached peasant pottery or African stone figures.
What you’re looking at was once the uppermost part of a much larger work known as *Plato* or *Little French Girl II*. That original sculpture was a tall, pole‑like figure with a squat torso, legs, and large feet. Around 1923 Brancusi cut the head off and apparently discarded the rest – a dramatic act that leaves us with this lone, almost contemplative head.
The cut‑away shows a sense of rhythm in the wooden surface, hinting at the larger, missing body. Brancusi’s choice to leave the head alone invites us to imagine the whole, to think about form, material, and the way a single element can stand on its own.
See it in person
Head is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
