Making a Brancusi Popup Book

We created small prototypes of paper mechanisms, then drew out thumbnails for our own "book." It's more of a card, really--regular letter-sized cardstock, front and back.

Pop-up Thumbnails!

Posted by   Lisa Brunet  at Tuesday, February 24, 2015 4:33:49 PM

Here's part of my planning process for the Brancusi Popup!

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Then we created a white paper dummy of our favorite design... And a final colored version. We basically make the same book twice, but it's important to work out the problems in a dummy, so you can have a clean, crisp final version that works cleanly.

Brancusi Popup Pictures

Posted by   Lisa Brunet  at Wednesday, February 18, 2015 2:05:06 AM

(30 Brancusi research shots are on Eben's flash drive with the video)

Here's the video! http://youtu.be/xQafdNOtvF8

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And the detail shots:

Brancusi Popup Details

Posted by   Lisa Brunet  at Saturday, February 21, 2015 8:46:47 PM

Here are some of the details on my Brancusi popup...

Opening the first mini-book: Norwegian collector Christen Sveaas, who thought he had signed a deal for both halves of Mademoiselle Pogany, but didn't realize the second deal was signed without the second brother's consent. I made his head an angry male version of Constantin Brancusi's 1909 sculpture Portrait de Femme, a lost stone carving with only an old photograph left as evidence.

The pull-tab, closed: Alvaro's half of Mademoiselle Pogany was signed away to Christen Sveaas for less money by his niece, without his consent.

The pull-tab, opened: I modified Constantin Brancusi's limestone sculpture, "The Kiss" into the quarreling Botez brothers. Alexandru (the bearded brother) being choked by an angry Alvaro. Alvaro tore up his contract after finding out that Alexandru's daughter had signed away his half of Mademoiselle Pogany for $1.4 million less than Alexandru's half. This strained the brothers' relationship. Alexandro also never bothered to tell Christen Sveaas that his contract was torn up and not made with his consent.

The last book, closed: Both brothers secretly started negotiating with David Martinez, a Mexican-born art collector.

The last book, opened: Martinez was wise enough to pay both brothers the same amount. He is being sued by Sveaas (along with the brothers) for breach of contract, but he says it's just healthy competition. Like Sveaas, David Martinez's head is a modified "Portrait de Femme", and his body is "Male Torso", a wooden sculpture.

Then, a picture with all the tabs and books opened. I used swirls of the same colors to lead the eye in the right order for the story.

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