Naum Gabo: Russian Constructivist Sculptor, Biography 26/09/2023, 10:19

Naum Gabo
Biography of Naum Neemia Pevsner, Russian Constructivist Sculptor.
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Naum Gabo (1890-1977)

EVOLUTION OF SCULPTURE
See: History of Sculpture.

One of the great abstract sculptors of the twentieth century, the Russian artist
Naum Neemia Pevsner - more commonly known as Naum Gabo - was a key
figure in the Constructivism movement, a pioneer of Kinetic Art and an
important exemplar of Russian sculpture.

Trained as an engineer, rather than an artist, Gabo was one of the first
sculptors to make use of semi-transparent materials and to create abstract
sculpture that incorporated space in a positive way. During his long life he was
associated with numerous styles and schools including: Cubism, Futurism,
Bauhaus, Abstraction-Creation, and the St Ives School. He also created
countless sculptures, etchings and graphic designs, many of which can be seen
at the Tate Gallery, London. Other examples of Naum Gabo's innovative
sculpture can be seen in several of the best art museums in Europe and
America.
MODERN PLASTIC ARTISTS
For a list of sculptors like Gabo,
see: Modern Artists.

BEST SCULPTURE
See: Greatest Sculptures Ever.

BEST ARTISTS
See: Greatest Sculptors.

MODERNIST SCULPTURE
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)
Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Alberto Giacometti (1901-66)
David Smith (1906-65)
Meret Oppenheim (1913-85)

Gabo's most famous works include Constructed Head No. 2 (1916, Nasher
Sculpture Centre, Dallas), Head of a Woman (1917-20, Museum of Modern Art,
New York), Translucent Variation on Spheric Theme (1937, Guggenheim New
York), Constructie (1955-57, Bijenkorf Department Store, Rotterdam), Kinetic
Construction (Standing Wave) (1919-20, replica 1985, Tate) and Linear
Construction No 2 (1970-1, Tate). Another of the great Russian artists who left
his native country to practise his art, Naum Gabo is regarded as one of the
great twentieth century sculptors.

Other famous Russian emigrant sculptors include: the Cubists

Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) and Jacques Lipchitz (1891-
1973) the Expressionist Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), and the
Assemblage artist Louise Nevelson (born Louise Berliawsky) (1899-
1988).

Early Life

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Naum Gabo: Russian Constructivist Sculptor, Biography 26/09/2023, 10:19

Gabo was born in Briansk, a provincial Russian town in 1890. He was

christened Naum Pevsner, but changed his name later to Gabo to avoid
confusion with his brother Antoine Pevsner, who also became a Constructivist
sculptor. His father was a wealthy metal works owner, and insisted that his
children were well schooled. Gabo was fluent in several languages, which he
later felt contributed towards the mobility of his art career. In 1910 he moved
to Munich to study at the University. At first he studied medicine, but soon
switched to natural sciences. In 1912 he transferred to a prestigious
engineering college, learning techniques that would help him construct
sculptures later. At the college he met the artist Wassily Kandinsky who
introduced him to abstract art. Gabo's career plans were beginning to change
as he redirected his interests towards the visual arts.

Return to Russia and Foundations of Constructivism

In 1913 Gabo joined his brother Antoine in Paris - Antoine at this stage was
already an established painter in the city. Gabo began to study the mechanics
of sculpture, and his first pieces during this period won critical acclaim. He was
awarded the Logan Medal of Arts. At the outbreak of World War I, Gabo was
forced to flee Germany for Norway. Here, he began to experiment in multi-
media including plywood and cardboard. He also worked with galvanised iron, a
material more associated with industrial construction rather than the fine arts.
Head No. 2 (1916, Tate London), a Cor-ten steel sculpture of a head, is a fine
example from this period, as is his Constructed Torso (1917, Tate), made from
cardboard. In 1917, Gabo and his brother returned to Russia where they
exchanged ideas with Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) and Vladimir Tatlin (1885-
1953) at the Moscow College of Art. Both were the two most important figures
in the avant-garde Russian art movement of the 1920s. In 1920, the brothers
published their Realistic Manifesto. It provided the key text of Constructivism
and laid out their theories on artistic expressions. The Manifesto focused on
separating art from the conventions of line, colour, volume and mass. They also
stated that art should accompany man everywhere, 'at the workbench, at the
office, at work, at rest, and at leisure; work days and holidays, at home and on
the road, so that the flame of life does not go out in man.' The ideas of the
Manifesto were expressed in Gabo's Kinetic Construction (Standing Wave) of
1920, a vibrating wire powered by an electric motor. A replica can be seen in
the Tate Gallery, London.

The Manifesto also criticised Futurism and Cubism for not embracing abstract
art enough. The brothers publicised their findings by organising an exhibition
on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow.

Note About Sculpture Appreciation

To learn how to evaluate modernist abstract sculptors like Naum
Gabo, see: How to Appreciate Modern Sculpture. For earlier works,
please see: How to Appreciate Sculpture.

Berlin and Bauhaus

In 1922, somewhat disappointed with the materialist direction taken by

Constructivism in Russia, Gabo left for Berlin. Here, he met with many artists
of the de Stijl movement (also known as Neo-Plasticism) including its leaders
Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. In 1926 he created a constructivist set
design for Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Only highly esteemed
artists were ever invited to work with the Ballets Russes, and Gabo was in good
company alongside Picasso, Chanel, Matisse, Derain, Miro, Dali and Rouault. By
1928 Gabo was teaching at the famous Bauhaus design school, and exhibited
alongside other associates including Kurt Schwitters and Hugo Haring. In 1933,
to avoid the rise of Nazism, Gabo and his brother who were Jewish moved to
Paris.

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Naum Gabo: Russian Constructivist Sculptor, Biography 26/09/2023, 10:19

France and UK

Gabo and his brother stayed in Paris until 1935, becoming members of the
Abstraction-Creation Group. The founders of the movement included Jean Arp,
Theo van Doesburg, Albert Gleizes, Auguste Herbin, Jean Helion, Frantisek
Kupka, Georges Vantongerloo and Georges Valmier. Artists who joined the
group shared a consensus on working with geometric abstract forms. Other
members included El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters. In 1939 Gabo moved to St
Ives in Cornwall, and settled there for seven years. He met the art critic
Herbert Read and became friends with English abstract painter Ben Nicholson
(1894-1982) and sculptress Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975). He worked on a
small scale in St Ives, on both paintings and sculptures. While in England Gabo
was introduced to the new variety of plastic called Perspex. He went on to
employ this material in some of his best known works such as Translucent
Variation on Spheric Theme (1937, Guggenheim New York) and Spiral Theme
(1941, Tate). Gabo made over 20 free standing variations of the basic spherical
theme, just differing in materials and size. More elaborate models of his plastic
art include Spheric Construction: Fountain (1938), Bas-relief on a Circular
Surface, Semi-spheric (1938) and Construction in Space, with Net (1952) - all
in private collections. During the war years in England, Nabo also introduced
nylon filaments into his works, for example Linear Construction in Space No.1
(1942, Tate). Materials became in short supply as the war progressed, but he
was still able to carve and paint. Although Gabo left England in 1946, the baton
of Constructivism was taken up by Victor Pasmore (and others) in the form of
geometrical paintings.

1950s Onwards

In 1946 Gabo moved to the States and received a series of large scale
commissions. The first of this was for the Esso building the Rockefeller Center,
New York (this remained unexecuted - Model for the Esso Project, 1949 can be
seen at the Tate) and his Construction Suspended in Space for the Baltimore
Museum of Art (1951). Many of Gabo's sculptures first appeared as tiny
models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely
achieved, in which architecture and sculpture came together. His proposal, for
example, that Model for an Airport (1932, Tate) could be used to advertise
Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never
realised. Model for Torsion (1928-36, Tate), however, was eventually translated
into a large fountain outside St Thomas Hospital in London. One of the
monumental pieces Gabo executed at this period in his life is his 81-foot
construction that stands in front of the Bijenkorf Department Store in
Rotterdam (1955-57). This work, called Constructie, is composed largely of a
bronze-coated steel mesh that adheres to a skeletal frame resembling an
upright pea pod. In the early 1950s Gabo took up wood engraving, which he
continued until the mid 1970s as a way of exploring the same concepts as his
sculpture.

Throughout his career Nabo sought to integrate sculpture, architecture, design,

art and science. In such a way he felt that his 'constructive idea' could serve as
a philosophy not only for art but for life in general. He taught his philosophy at
the Harvard University School of Architecture between 1953 and 1954. Gabo
died in 1977, in Connecticut. He was 87.

• For more about the history and styles of plastic art, see: Homepage.
• For more about modernism in sculpture and painting, see: Modern Art.

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