Naum Gabo, KBE born Naum Neemia Pevsner (Russian: Наум Борисович Певзнер, Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר) (5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1890 – 23 August 1977) was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century sculpture.[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. 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-Création group.[2][3] Two preoccupations, unique to Gabo, were his interest in representing negative space—"released from any closed volume" or mass—and time.[1] He famously explored the former idea in his Linear Construction works (1942-1971)—used nylon filament to create voids or interior spaces as "concrete" as the elements of solid mass—and the latter in his pioneering work, Kinetic Sculpture (Standing Waves) (1920), often considered the first kinetic work of art.[4][5]
Gabo elaborated many of his ideas in the Constructivist Realistic Manifesto, which he issued with his brother, sculptor Antoine Pevsner as a handbill accompanying their 1920 open-air exhibition in Moscow. In it, he sought to move past Cubism and Futurism, renouncing what he saw as the static, decorative use of color, line, volume and solid mass in favor of a new element he called "the kinetic rhythms (…) the basic forms of our perception of real time."[6] Gabo held a utopian belief in the power of sculpture—specifically abstract, Constructivist sculpture—to express human experience and spirituality in tune with modernity, social progress, and advances in science and technology.[2][3][5] After working on a smaller scale in England during the war years (1936-1946), Gabo moved to the United States, where he received several public sculpture commissions, only some of which he completed.[1] These include Constructie, a 25-metre (82 ft) 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. The Tate Gallery, in Millbank, London, held a major retrospective of Gabo's work in 1966 and holds many key works in its collection, as do the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York. Work by Gabo is also included at Rockefeller Center in New York City and The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, New York, US.
^ abcTate Gallery. Naum Gabo biography. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
^ abHammer, Martin and Naum Gabo, Christina Lodder. Constructing Modernity: The Art & Career of Naum Gabo, Yale University Press, 2000.
^ abChipp, Herschel B. Theories of Modern Art, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968, p. 312.
^de la Croix, Horst and Richard G. Tansey, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 7th Ed., New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 842-4.
^ abGabo, Naum. "Sculpture: Carving and construction in space," Circle: International Survey of Constructive Arts, eds. J.L. Martin, Ben Nicholson, and Naum Gabo, London: Faber & Faber, 1937, p. 103–111. Reprinted 1966 (New York: George Wittenborn).
^Gabo, Naum. The Realistic Manifesto, Moscow, 5 August 1920. Translated in Gabo, Sir Herbert Read & Leslie Martin, London: Lund Humphries, 1957.
political activist, and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature NaumGabo (1890-1977), prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement...
was a Russian-born sculptor and the older brother of Alexii Pevsner and NaumGabo. As the originators of Constructivism and pioneers of Kinetic Art, The...
British Columbia, Canada. His sculptures are reminiscent of the work of NaumGabo and others in the Russian Constructivist movement. His wooden sculptures...
The Realistic Manifesto is a key text of Constructivism. Written by Naum "Gabo" Neemia Pevzner. and cosigned by his brother, Antoine Pevsner, the Manifesto...
kinetic sculpture and fountain by the Russian-born Constructivist artist NaumGabo. It was commissioned for the Tate Gallery and has been on long-term loan...
particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and NaumGabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in...
artists grew closer and closer to ascribing their art to dynamic motion. NaumGabo, one of the two artists attributed to naming this style, wrote frequently...
American physicist Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of NaumGabo David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dancer and writer Keren Pevzner...
2019 – 1 September 2019 Otobong Nkanga 12 October 2019 - 5 January 2020 NaumGabo 25 January - 3 May 2020 Haegue Yang: Strange Attractors, 24 October 2020...
Belsize Avenue Residents of the Isokon Flats: Agatha Christie, writer NaumGabo, sculptor Walter Gropius, architect Nicholas Monsarrat, writer László...
as the painter Ben Nicholson, and the sculptors Barbara Hepworth and NaumGabo. Busy with other duties, he made a small number of paintings such as the...
Chirico, Otto Kallir 1977 in art – Death of Charles Alston, Lee Miller, NaumGabo. Centre Pompidou opens 1976 in art – Birth of Jay Simeon; Death of Max...
visionary architecture, little of which was actually constructed. Artists NaumGabo, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and Alexander Rodchenko, have influenced...
Moisei Ginzburg, architect (1892–1946) Alexander Rodchenko (1891–1956) NaumGabo (1890–1977) László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962)...
setbacks. The exterior also houses an abstract bas-relief created by NaumGabo. The Center Theatre, at 1236 Sixth Avenue, was the only structure in the...
graphic works. On the other side stood Kazimir Malevich, Anton Pevsner and NaumGabo. They argued that art was essentially a spiritual activity; to create...
London he made contact with and mixed with a range of artists, including NaumGabo, László Moholy-Nagy and Ben Nicholson. He exhibited in a number of galleries...
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