Steichen's Aviator;
On Tuesday 11 December 2018, an exhibition of Steichen photographs and other art was unveiled at the new Amazon European HQ in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.
Organised under the patronage of the Romanian Embassy in Luxembourg, represented by H.E. Ambassador Mr. Lilian Zamfiroiu, the exhibition presented works of art and WW1 photo-documents related to the participation in France and Luxembourg of US captain Edward Steichen, commander of the Photographic Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, as well as documents of his cooperation with Brancusi, including Steichen's works as main photographer of the Parisian art studio of Brancusi and of the art of this eminent sculptor.
The exhibition also features other remarkable works of art created by Rodin, Brancusi, Steichen, Modigliani, Brauner, Petrascu and Botarro, most of them brought exceptionally to Luxembourg from private collections around Europe.
This event marks four distinctive celebrations: 100 years of the birth of Modern Romania (1 December 1918), 100 years from the end of WW1, 45 years since the death of Edward Steichen and, last but not least, 90 years from the birth of modern sculpture: In 1928 Constantin Brancusi initiated a procedure against the US Customs, to have his sculpture "Bird in Space", already purchased by Steichen, recognised to the status of work of art. The sculpture "Bird in Space" had just been heavily taxed on imports at that time by US Customs as an utilitarian object. It was Steichen who organised the legal procedure, the witnesses, the lawyers and the press, etc., and it is was thanks to Steichen that Brancusi won the caselaw. Thus Brancusi was declared "the initiator of modern sculpture" by an American judgment then applied throughout the world (26 November 1928, American Justice Waite).
