In the 1920s Brancusi carved the trunk of an oak tree in the garden of his friend, photographer Edward Steichen. This sculpture, which became one of his many Endless Columns, was then erected in situ. While the different elements of the column are not literally stacked one on top of the other – they are all part of the same tree trunk – the visual experience gives this impression. Brancusi retained, however, the idea of stacking. In a later photomontage he stacked two depictions of this sculpture and created on paper a gigantic Endless Column that is free of all restrictions of gravity and weight.