The Manifesto focused largely on divorcing art from such conventions as use of lines, color, volume, and mass. 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. We would like to hear from you. de la Croix, Horst and Richard G. Tansey, Gabo, Naum. lit by love of truth in these ways of wisdom In 1952, despite finishing ahead of 3,500 other artists, he was disappointed to be awarded second prize in the Institute of Contemporary Art's Unknown Political Prisoner international sculpture competition, his abstract monument design having been perceived to lack emotion. View all posts by JezzieG, Your email address will not be published. But when set in motion by an electric motor, the oscillations of the rod generate a delicately complex image of a freestanding, twisting wave. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. It is March 1950 and Naum Gabo (1890-1977), the world-famous sculptor, is stabbing a mahogany table leg. He began making constructed sculpture in Norway in 1915, when he took the name of Gabo. I see her face concealed in flames of fire, Originally posted on Jezzie G: The Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire is an Irish poetic form consisting of quatrains (four-line stanzas). Shortly afterwards, having been offered 25 to make a small construction as a present for a friend, Gabo produced the first version of Spiral Theme, an important work which would take him in a new artistic direction, and lead to a renewed engagement with family and friends. 2023 The Art Story Foundation. (London 1957), note between pls.25 and 26, and p.183. For the British artists, the string is an addition to the dominant sculptural form, and is widely spaced, adding distinct lines and texture which contrast with solid mass. Constructivist. Lit: Gabo died in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1977. 2 is one of a set of early figurative works by Gabo now seen to have revolutionized sculpture. 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. Set within the Perspex planes are opaquely colored, geometric floating shapes, and an open ring. Finished in St. Ives, it is one of a number of stone works from this period which represent Gabo's first experiments with the time-honored technique of direct carving. Over the years his exhibitions have generated immense enthusiasm because of the emotional power present in his sculpture. [8], Rejecting the traditional notion that prints should be made in editions of identical impressions, Gabo instead preferred to use the monoprint format as a vehicle for artistic experimentation. In a country starved of resources, Gabo had to rely on a friend who worked for Imperial Chemicals to provide these materials. The ultimate winner was the pompous, neo-classical design of architect Boris Iofan. Gabo was educated in Russia and Munich before emigrating to Scandinavia in 1915. Moving away from the geometrical precision typical of 1920s modernist architecture - the work of Le Corbusier, for example - Gabo's work predicts later developments in the style, such as the curvilinear forms of Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer's designs for Braslia in the 1950s. The exactness of form leads the viewer to imagine journeying into, through, over and around his sculptures. 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. Linear Construction in Space, another work created during Gabo's time in St. Ives, is formed from nylon filament thread wound taut around a Perspex framework, creating an intricate web that encases a central void. It manifests the spiritual rhythm and directs it. For Gabo, sculptures like Column, which gave a certain impression of weightlessness, "appeal[ed] to minds and feelings more than crude physical senses". Gabo wrote and issued jointly with Antoine Pevsner in August 1920 a "Realistic Manifesto" proclaiming the tenets of pure Constructivism the first time that the term was used. 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 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. Constructed Head No. In 1910, after schooling in Kursk, Gabo entered Munich University to study medicine. 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. "[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. Gabo was offered the studio behind Peter Lanyon's red house whilst the younger artist was away fighting. Try using search, or browse one of the following links: You can also e-mail web@guggenheim.org to report any errors or concerns. [7] His earliest constructions such as Head No.2 were formal experiments in depicting the volume of a figure without carrying its mass. During the 1960s-70s, a shift in public and critical opinion led to a newfound enthusiasm for large-scale, abstract sculpture, and these final decades of Gabo's life brought him unprecedented success, including a slew of international exhibitions, and notable retrospectives at London's Tate Gallery in 1966 and 1976. 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. He was a fluent in German, French, and English, in addition to his native Russian. 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. Background Gabo was born Naum Pevsner on August 5, 1890, in the small Russian town of Bryansk, the sixth of seven brothers and sisters. In 1912, Gabo transferred to an engineering school in Munich, where he discovered abstract art and met the noted painter Wassily Kandinsky. [1] His work combined geometric abstraction with a dynamic organization of form in small reliefs and constructions, monumental public sculpture and pioneering kinetic works that assimilated new materials such as nylon, wire, lucite and semi-transparent materials, glass and metal. Gabo wrote to the Addison Gallery on 13 March 1949: 'I don't know whether I need to emphasise that this work of mine is of great importance not only to my own development, but it can be historically proved that it is a cornerstone in the whole development of contemporary architecture. 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. They sought new visual forms and materials to give expression to these enormous changes that transformed the modern world. Gabo's plans, on which he worked feverishly for several months, consisted of two vast auditoria constructed from reinforced concrete, protruding from a towering central service block. With the four versions of Spiral Theme Gabo discovered a new aspect of his creative register, the pieces' graceful, organic forms supplanting the geometric planes and precision of works such as Column, and perhaps reflecting his new creative friendships with artists like Barbara Hepworth. Naum Gabo, one of the leading proponents of the Russian avant-garde art movement called constructivism, was among a generation of artists at the beginning of the 20th century who responded to recent discoveries in science and new theories about reality. Gabo was born Naum Pevsner in the small Russian town of Bryansk, the sixth of seven brothers and sisters. The piece now at Yale was bought by the Socit Anonyme from the artist c.1927-9. The same year, he became a citizen of the United States, and in 1953 the family moved to Middlebury, Connecticut. To a sibling he wrote: "I'm very sorry I've had to absorb such a mass of interesting impressions alone". Model for 'Torsion', however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. The Work of Naum Gabo Nina & Graham Williams / Tate, London 2023. It should be noticed that the work was conceived in the winter of 1920-1, as a tiny model, and executed in the winter of 1922-3 in its big form'. In a note on this work published in Read and Martin, op. Again, this sculpture represents a creative departure from Gabo's previous work. The full text of the article is here , Two Cubes (Demonstrating the Stereometric Method), Model for 'Construction in Space, Suspended', Construction in Space with Crystalline Centre, Model for 'Construction in Space 'Two Cones''. 1928, rebuilt 1938. This piece also represents the first time Gabo used string in his work, inspired by geometrical modelling techniques and by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore's sculptures, though Gabo applied this compositional material in a new way. [1] Plastic and nylon threads - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom. Away from war-torn Europe, Gabo found artistic freedom and financial security. Gift of Collection Socit Anonyme. Due to the dearth of exhibitions and sales in war-time Britain, Gabo's time in England was not commercially successful, though he always looked back on it fondly. Imaginative as Gabo was, his practicality lent itself to the conception and production of his works. 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