Tall story

‘Everything is slow in Romania,’ said our driver Pavel resignedly, and, as it turned out, he was not exaggerating. He was taking us on a trip of about 150 miles, from Sibiu to Targu Jiu, to see the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi. Taking the faster route, we set off a little after 9 a.m. and arrived at about 2 p.m., stiffer, wearier and more comprehending of the reasons why, although Brancusi’s ‘Endless Column’ is among the most celebrated works of modernism, almost nobody — in the London art world, at least — has seen it. My inquiries suggested that an intrepid Tate curator had made it, but that was more than a decade ago.

Evidently, as we now realised, nobody in their right mind would make the excursion, which involved navigating a mountain pass through the Carpathians on a road partly collapsed into a river torrent. Anyone wanting to get to Targu Jiu should start from somewhere else. They should also be warned that, modern art aside, its attractions to visitors are limited. Our guidebook mentioned ‘grim coal and lignite mines’ in the environs plus the ‘gross modernisation’ the place had suffered in the era of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. There was, indeed, a lot of concrete. Nonetheless, Targu Jiu richly repays a visit.

The first Brancusi we encountered was the ‘Endless Column’. It was an extraordinary sight, sprouting out of a small park, gleaming softly in the sunshine. But, like many great sculptures, it is difficult to photograph — or even describe. It is easier to say what it is not like. It doesn’t resemble a tower, pillar or a factory chimney — Romania boasts some truly stonking specimens of the last.