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The Romanina artist, Constantin Brancusi brought the image of the rhomboid pillar to his wonderful sculpture the "Endless Column." For Brancusi, the rhomboid pillar was the embodiment of the "axis mundi", the world's axis, the tree of life, the pillar of the sky, the pivot of the universe. He once referred to these columns as stairways to heaven. Peoples all over the world have used the metaphysical pillar to link the earth and the sun, the source of all life.
The pillar image may not seem as fresh today as it did when arrived on the Paris art scene in the early 20th Century, but today, many art critics view the Romanian-born Parisian sculptor Brancusi as a major player in the Modern art movement. Along with Picasso, Brancusi introduced the notion of using traditional art forms in Western art--including 'totem' poles or sacred pillars, stone plinths, and other metaphysical carvings.
BRANCUSI was published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with a major retrospective of his work. Brancusi apparently deplored analytic attempts to understand his art (he felt his works should simply be "enjoyed" i.e. the fill the viewer with joy). However, the book is filled with material designed to help the reader "understand" and to a great extent, I feel it accomplishes it's goal.
The layout includes photographs showing how Brancusi may have found inspiration for his many birds, heads, and other organic and metaphysical works, including his rhomboidal columns. For example, one series of photographs shows Brancusi's famous "Muse" series executed in marble, bronze, and other media, and includes possible sources of inspiration such as a photograph and self-portrait of Margit Pogany. The various "Muse" may have evolved from a semi-formal bust similar to those executed by more traditional artists to a fully evolved "essence" of "head" more akin to Modern art.
I recommend this book to anyone who desires a pictoral record of the artist at work as well as many flat representations of his wonderfully formed three-dimensional sculptures and carvings.

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I liked how Galen Rowell interspersed his account of the expedition with earlier accounts of K2 attempts, some successful and some not. They gave an interesting insight into the history of this tough mountain and the people who have climbed it. The journal excerpts from various 1975 team members were insightful and intriguing. I am now going to start on "The Last Step" by Rick Ridgeway, about the 1978 American K2 expedition. Apparently, this team wasn't without their problems either.
I found it ironic, that after all the team discussion about the possibly negative implications of having a woman (Dianne Roberts) on the team, especially the wife of the leader, that she really figured very little in the disputes and quarrels. It was also ironic that there was still a lot of dissention and miscommunication amongst the team members on the actual expedition, even after the team expelled Alex Bertulis from the original team, due to lack of confidence in his ability to be a team player.
Read it, you won't be disappointed. I gave it a four because I found the first couple of chapters hard to get into. But once the '75 team is formed, it picks up quickly and then is quite hard to put down.
Unfortunately, Galen Rowell, the author of this book and a well-known photographer, recently was killed in a plane crash near his home in California with his wife.