Perspex and nylon - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. Around this time, he also saw many Post-Impressionist and Cubist works in Russia, where the entrepreneur and art-collector Sergei Shchukin exhibited his European collection regularly. 1928, rebuilt 1938 Perspex and plastic on aluminum base 27 11.3 10 cm (10 5/8 4 7/16 3 15/16 in.) Foregoing the superficial abstractions of the Cubists and Futurists, and rejecting propagandist realism, the new art would use sculptural forms to present "depth" (empty space) rather than mass, and generate "kinetic rhythms" which would represent the element of time as well as the element of space. In fact, the element of movement in Gabos sculpture is connected to a strong rhythm, more implicit and deeper than the chaotic patterns of life itself. Model for 'Column' was created in 1921 by Naum Gabo in Constructivism style. Constructed Head No. It was first exhibited in 1920, to great critical acclaim. By incorporating moving parts into his sculpture, or static elements which strongly suggested movement, Gabo's work stands at the forefront of a whole artistic tradition, Kinetic Art, which uses art to represent time as well as space. The work is composed of six meditations, in which Descartes attempts to establish a firm Born in Russia, he had lived in Germany, Norway, France and then from 1936 to 1946 in England. Plastic and nylon threads - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom. Responding to the scientific and political revolutions of his age, Gabo led an eventful and peripatetic life, moving to Berlin, Paris, Oslo, Moscow, London, and finally the United States, and within the circles of the major avant-garde movements of the day, including Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, the Bauhaus, de Stijl and the Abstraction-Cration group. Norway was quiet and tranquil. In retrospect, works like Column set the tone for aspects of Gabo's work throughout the rest of his career. The same year, he became a citizen of the United States, and in 1953 the family moved to Middlebury, Connecticut. St. Ives, Cornwall had been home to a large community of artists since the 1920s, including Bernard Leach, Adrian Stokes, and the fisherman and artistic savant Alfred Wallis. His influence was important to the development of modernism within St Ives, and it can be seen most conspicuously in the paintings and constructions of John Wells and Peter Lanyon, both of whom developed a softer more pastoral form of Constructivism. After the Soviet Union withdrew from World War I in 1917 and the threat of a draft was over, Pevsner and his brother, sculptor Naum Gabo, returned to Moscow to participate in the utopian fervor of building a new egalitarian society. Perspex, wood, metal, and glass - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York. Naum Gabo's structurally complex, mesmeric abstract sculptures cast a shadow over the whole of 20 th-century art, while his life was that of the quintessential creative migr, as he moved from country to country seeking new contexts for his work, in flight from war and repression. At the same time, the dynamic curves of the design represented a departure from the geometric aesthetics of the "International Style" then prevalent in modernist architecture, which Gabo had studied, and emulated in previous architectural sketches. In a note on this work published in Read and Martin, op. Whereas the Tate's model has a red base, the bases of the others are either black or (in the case of Nina Gabo's version) stainless steel. The introduction of a liquid element into the body of the sculpture is highly significant, with the surfaces formed by the jets of water replacing the string meshwork of the Linear Constructions in creating the illusion of solid matter. 'From the very beginning of the Constructive Movement it was clear to me that a constructed, , Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.236-7, reproduced p.236, Model for Construction in Space Two Cones, Model for Construction in Space Crystal. He sometimes even used motors to move the sculpture. Visit the Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned Guggenheim Museum in NYC, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The use of space in the work, in this case the central void enclosed by the surrounding Perspex, becomes a newly prominent feature. Gabo was born Naum Pevsner in the small Russian town of Bryansk, the sixth of seven brothers and sisters. 1 (1942-43), Linear Construction in Space No. His scientific training would be put to good use in his later sculptural constructions, and it was in Munich that he became fascinated with Einstein and Bergson's radical theories of time. Miriam had been married to a businessman, Cyril Franklin, with whom she had three children, but she ended her marriage shortly after meeting Gabo. My works of this time, up to 1924 , are all in the search for an image which would fuse the sculptural element with the architectural element into one unit. During his travels to Paris in 1912-13, Gabo had seen Picasso and Braque's paintings - the artists were still in their so-called Analytical Cubis" phase - and in Norway he began to apply similar concepts of breaking up the picture plane into three-dimensional work - consider Picasso's Woman with Pears (1909), for example. 2 is one of a set of early figurative works by Gabo now seen to have revolutionized sculpture. Gabo grew up in a Jewish family of six children in the provincial Russian town of Bryansk, where his father owned a factory. Naum Gabo Naum Neemia Pevsner Born: August 5, 1890; Bryansk, Russian Federation Died: August 23, 1977; Waterbury, Connecticut, United States Nationality: Russian, Jewish Art Movement: Constructivism, Kinetic art Painting School: Abstraction-Cration, St Ives School Genre: sculpture Field: painting, sculpture But they are really significant in epitomizing a moment in the history of modern art when it seemed that avant-garde painters, sculptors and architects might have a role to play in the construction of a new society. Created as a prototype for a site-specific, large-scale public sculpture intended to be placed near a Soviet textile factory, Linear Construction was conceived as a tribute to the artists and workers still attempting to construct a socialist society. Discover (and save!) Gabo's health began to fail in his 80s, and he died in 1977 in Waterbury, Connecticut, following a long illness. From an early age, Naum was strong-minded, rebellious, and politically driven. This document, written by Gabo, made history, galvanizing the spirit of rebellion and the urgent desire for change amongst a huge swath of Russian culture at this time. Naum Gabo Naum Neemia Pevsner Born: August 5, 1890; Bryansk, Russian Federation Died: August 23, 1977; Waterbury, Connecticut, United States Nationality: Russian, Jewish Art Movement: Constructivism, Kinetic art Painting School: Abstraction-Cration, St Ives School Genre: sculpture Field: painting, sculpture Constructed from flat planes of intersecting plywood this Madonna-like figure alludes to the icon paintings that Gabo would have seen in Russian Orthodox domestic interiors, traditionally placed high up in the corner of the room, as if watching over the inhabitants below. Content compiled and written by The Art Story Contributors, Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Greg Thomas, Kinetic Construction (Standing Wave) (1920), Submitted Design for Palace of Soviets: Plan of Main Hall and Section (1931), Linear Construction in Space No. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. ", "Sculpture personifies and inspires the ideas of all great epochs. By the time he reached England in 1936 Gabo was an internationally recognized artist, and he was welcomed warmly by British artists and critics such as Barbara Hepworth, her future husband Ben Nicholson, and Herbert Read, many of whom Gabo had met in Paris through Abstraction-Cration. The abstract compositional vocabulary of works like Column was not abstract for the sake of it, but was intended as a means of defining the new ways in which Soviet citizens might feel, perceive, and act within the world around them. His maquettes for that project, and the earliest version of Linear Construction 2, date from 1949; the version in the Tate Collection was specially constructed and donated by the artist in 1969, in memory of his friend Herbert Read (it was rebuilt in 1971). 'I consider this Column the culmination of that search. The ultimate winner was the pompous, neo-classical design of architect Boris Iofan. Imaginative as Gabo was, his practicality lent itself to the conception and production of his works. 2 is a figurative bust, one of four similar works that characterize Gabo's early career, created during his period of refuge in Norway during World War One. Constructed Head No. The larger versions of Spiral Theme arose from Gabo's discovery, in 1935, of a new compositional material, Perspex, which had increased flexibility when heated, and was more transparent than the celluloid he had used in earlier works. Stainless steel - St Thomas's Hospital, London. Gabo exhibited, alongside many of his compatriates, in the ground-breaking Abstract and Concrete show at London's Lefvre Gallery in 1936, and in 1937 he co-edited the hugely influential compendium of Constructivist art Circle, with Ben Nicholson and the architect Leslie Martin. These include Constructie, an 81-foot commemorative monument in front of the Bijenkorf Department Store (1954, unveiled in 1957) in Rotterdam, and Revolving Torsion, a large fountain outside St Thomas Hospital in London. Like lots of Gabo's later, large-scale public works, Revolving Torsion is the final realization of a theme previously expressed across a range of scales and materials, in this case as various plastic and metal models created from the late 1920s onwards: Model for Torsion (circa 1928), Torsion: Project for a Fountain (1960-64), etcetera. "[6] Gabo held a utopian belief in the power of sculpturespecifically abstract, Constructivist sculptureto express human experience and spirituality in tune with modernity, social progress, and advances in science and technology. 2 was Gabo's first significant work after his move to the USA in 1946. This meant he could incorporate empty spaces into his sculptures. The Cornish coastline was a source of emotional solace; since moving to St. Ives, the Gabos had collected shells from the nearby beaches. The transparent planes build upon and reveal the sections below, suggesting emergence and growth. As a young man in post-Revolutionary Russia, Gabo was closely associated with Constructivism, which sought to blur the boundaries between creative and functional processes. Boris Pevsner owned a successful metal works and rolling mill, which supplied many of the railways around Russia. He moved back to Russia in 1917, to become involved in politics and art, spending five years in Moscow with his brother Antoine. Kinetic Construction was Gabo's first motorized sculpture, demonstrating his pioneering integration of engineering techniques and scientific principles into art. As in the earlier Linear Construction, space is contained without being filled, a new and elegant way of emphasizing volume independently of mass. your own Pins on Pinterest Gabo's other concern as described in the Realistic Manifesto was that art needed to exist actively in four dimensions including time. [1] These include Constructie, a 25-metre (82ft) commemorative monument in front of the Bijenkorf Department Store (1954, unveiled in 1957) in Rotterdam, and Revolving Torsion, a large fountain outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. Gabo described himself as "making images to communicate my feelings of the world." Like all the most important artists, his work and his life were fundamentally shaped by the era in which he lived, and helped to define that era in turn. He was part of the St Ives group in Cornwall, alongside Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. Again, this sculpture represents a creative departure from Gabo's previous work. Gabo made preliminary designs for Column in 1921 with the idea of making it into a large public sculpture, towering over the hills near Moscow. Lost in the Detail: Naum Gabo's Monoprints. Two preoccupations, unique to Gabo, were his interest in representing negative space"released from any closed volume" or massand time. In generating the impression of volume in empty space, Gabo was responding to contemporary scientific theories stressing the "disintegration between solids and surrounding space". Gabo also devised plans for architectural forms, such as skyscrapers and car-parks, which were never realized. Together they visited the Salon des Indpendants, exposing the young Gabo to the work of Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky, Delaunay, Leger, and others, and to the Cubist and Futurist ideas exploding onto the avant-garde scene. Two years later, he defied his father's wishes by transferring to study maths, natural and applied sciences, engineering, and, finally, philosophy. Find more prominent pieces of installation at Wikiart.org best visual art database. 2023 The Art Story Foundation. Linear Construction in Space No. Gabo and Pevsner promoted the manifesto by staging an exhibition on a bandstand on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow and posted the manifesto on hoardings around the city. He lacked confidence in his art, and there were tensions and jealousy between him and his brother. Naum Gabo Model for Column 19201 The Work of Naum Gabo Nina & Graham Williams / Tate, London 2023 License this image Not on display Artist Naum Gabo 18901977 Medium Plastic (cellulose nitrate) Dimensions Object: 143 95 95 mm Collection Tate Acquisition Presented by the artist 1977 Reference T02167 Display caption Catalogue entry He was also finally able to achieve a long-held ambition of creating large-scale, public works, receiving commissions from the Rockefeller Centre in New York in 1949, and the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1950 - though only the latter construction was realized, a hanging sculpture inspired by Alexander Calder (with whom Gabo would exhibit in 1953 at the Wadsworth Athaeneum) and Rodchenko. See the renowned permanent collection and special exhibitions. "Inspiration: a functional approach to creative practice", "V&A conservators race to preserve art and design classics in plastic", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Naum_Gabo&oldid=1133235691, Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 20:48. Just before the onset of the First World War in 1914, Gabo discovered contemporary art, by reading Kandinskys Concerning the Spiritual in Art, which asserted the principles of abstract art. In breaking down the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, integrating engineering techniques and scientific concepts into his creative process, and using industrial materials, he made a vital contribution to the development of Constructivist aesthetics. 2022-10-21. At the same time, Gabo's interest in transparent materials like glass and plastic - which was profound and enduring from this period onwards - reflected his ongoing fascination with depicting volume independently of mass. Metal, wood and electric motor - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom. Pencil and india ink on paper - Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow. Cellulose, acetate and Perspex - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom. The construction was therefore intended precisely to demonstate a scientific principle, and as a more sophisticated, scientifically accurate rendering of motion than the Futurists had managed with their rather excitable paintings. To escape the rise of the Nazis in Germany the pair stayed in Paris in 193235 as members of the Abstraction-Creation group with Piet Mondrian. Gabo's engineering training was key to the development of his sculptural work that often used machined elements. The appearance of the busts shifts and modulates constantly, based on viewing angle, lighting, and other ambient factors. We would like to hear from you. Ultimately, construction on the Palace of the Soviets was aborted by the German invasion of Russia in 1941, and never resumed. In 1912 Gabo transferred to an engineering school in Munich where he discovered abstract art and met Wassily Kandinsky and in 1913-14 joined his brother Antoine (who by then was an established painter) in Paris. One of four models made in anticipation of two larger sculptures, Spiral Theme is a curvilinear, transparent construction with a central vertical element, reminiscent of the shells Gabo found on the beaches around St. Ives, his home from 1939 to 1946. Gabo's influence on modern art has been profound, though it is sometimes underemphasized in art history books. Column is a representative piece of constructivist sculpture. Nonetheless, Gabo began a creative diary during this period, and involved himself in a diverse range of projects, including creating plans for domestic interiors, and even designing a car for the Jowett company in 1944 - though this plan fell through, with Jowett calling Gabo's concepts "radical but impractical". The birth of a daughter, Nina Serafima, in 1941, also brought him out of a period of creative torpor. Naum Gabo's structurally complex, mesmeric abstract sculptures cast a shadow over the whole of 20th-century art, while his life was that of the quintessential creative migr, as he moved from country to country seeking new contexts for his work, in flight from war and repression. Gabo was, in fact, involved in the collective conception of what would become known as Constructivism. By the early 1930s, the political climate in Germany had grown increasingly nationalistic, anti-semitic, and toxic. After making the large version, Gabo also made three models in plastic about 25.4cm high which belong to Sir Leslie Martin, Cambridge, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, and Nina S. Gabo, London. The piece, carved from a single block of Portland Stone, was begun in London in 1936, shortly after Gabo's arrival in Britain following four unhappy years in Paris. Gabo was a fluent speaker and writer in German, French, and English in addition to his native Russian. Key to this work, considered by many critics to be amongst Gabo's finest, are the harmonious, organic rhythms generated by the interplay of curved lines, and the complex patterns of reflected light which shift and reconfigure as the viewer moves around the sculpture. 2 grew from Gabo's unrealized plans for two public sculptures to stand outside the new Esso Building at the Rockefeller Center in New York. base: 0.3 cm (1/8 in.) During this period he realised a design for a fountain in Dresden (since destroyed). 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