Constantin Brancusi

He worked in Rodin’s studio but left to escape his shadow. Apollinaire, Pound, Léger, Rousseau, Matisse and Steichen were among his Paris friends, and Picasso a foe; Picabia, and especially his countryman Tzara, among the Dadaists he mixed with. He attended Stein’s salons, met de Chirico through Apollinaire, befriended Modigliani through a shared belief in carving, played his violin with Satie and asked Ray for advice on photography. Steichen was responsible for first taking his work to the US (where Customs famously insisted it couldn’t be art), and where Brancusi got his close friend Duchamp to sell on his behalf.