Naum Gabo by abhinav narayan

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NAUM

GABO understanding constructivism

Preface The book, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Naum Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is the representation of his life long work. This book will showcase his art form throughout the years, and will explain to you the reason and description pf the individual artworks. This book is supposed to create an experience of an art museum without going to one. I would like to thank my supervisors for their excellent guidance and support during this process. I also wish to thank all of the respondents, without whose cooperation I would not have been able to conduct this analysis. To my other colleagues at Central P.: I would like to thank you for your wonderful cooperation as well. It was always helpful to bat ideas about my research around with you. your wise counsel and kind words have, as always, served me well. I hope you enjoy your reading.

con t e n t.

01. 02. 03. 04.

11-20

Constructed Head

21-28

Constructivism series

29-36

Linear Construction

37-52

Construction in Space

05. 06. 07. 08.

53-62

Kinetic Art

63-72

The Thematic

73-88

The Opus Series

89-104

The Monumental

NAUM GABO Born Naum Neemia Pevsner in 1890. Grew up in a Jewish family of six children in the provincial Russian town of Bryansk, where his father owned a factory. His older brother was fellow Constructivist artist Antoine Pevsner. Gabo was a fluent speaker and writer of German, French, and English in addition to his native Russian. His command of several languages contributed greatly to his mobility during his career. After school in Kursk, Gabo entered Munich University in 1910, first studying medicine, then the natural sciences, and attended art history lectures by Heinrich Wölfflin; gained knowledge of the ideas of Einstein and his fellow innovators of scientific theory, as well as Henri Bergson. 1912 transferred to an engineering school in Munich where he discovered abstract art by reading Kandinsky’s ‘Concerning the Spiritual in Art’; 1913-14 joined his brother Antoine (who by then was an established painter) in Paris. Gabo’s engineering training was key to the development of his sculptural work that often used machined elements. During this time he won acclamations by many critics and awards like the Logan Medal of the arts.

1914 moved first to Copenhagen then Oslo with his older brother Alexei; 1915 made his first constructions under the name Naum Gabo (changed his name to avoid confusion with Antoine); figurative objects in cardboard or wood such as the Head No.2 which was formal experiment in depicting the volume of a figure without carrying its mass. 1917 moved back to Russia to become involved in politics and art, spending five years in Moscow with Antoine. Contributed to the Agit-prop open air exhibitions and taught at VKhUTEMAS the Higher Art and Technical Workshop, with Tatlin, Kandinsky and Rodchenko. During this period the reliefs and construction became more geometric and Gabo began to experiment with kinetic sculpture though the majority of the work was lost or destroyed. Gabo’s designs had become increasingly monumental but there was little opportunity to apply them commenting “It was the height of civil war, hunger and disorder in Russia. To find any part of machinery [..] was next to impossible”. August 1920 wrote and issued jointly with Antoine a Realistic Manifesto proclaiming the tenets of pure Constructivism the first time that the term was used; in it they criticised Cubism and Futurism as not becoming fully abstract arts, stated that the spiritual experience was the root of artistic production, and that art needed to exist actively in four dimensions including time; staged an exhibition on a bandstand on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow and posted 5000 copies of the manifesto on hoardings around the city.

In Germany Gabo came into contact with the artists of the de Stijl; 1928 taught at the Bauhaus. During this period he realised a design for a fountain in Dresden. 1924 joint exhibition with Antoine at the Galerie Percier, Paris. 1926 with Antoine designed the set and costumes for Diaghilev’s ballet La Chatte that toured in Paris and London. To escape the rise of the Nazis in Germany the pair stayed in Paris in 1932-5 as members of the Abstraction-Creation group with Mondrian. Gabo visited London in 1935, and settled in 1936, where he found a ‘spirit of optimism and sympathy for his position as an abstract artist’. At the outbreak of WWII he followed his friends Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson to St Ives in Cornwall, where he stayed initially with the art critic Adrian Stokes. Whilst in Cornwall he continued to work, albeit on a smaller scale. 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. In 1946 Gabo and his wife and daughter emigrated to the United States, where they resided first in Woodbury, and later in Middlebury, Connecticut. Died 1977 in Waterbury, Connecticut.of the manifesto on hoardings around the city.

Naum Gabo

01 Constructed Head

The “Constructed Head” dates to the period when Gabo first began expressing his theories in the form of art. He started by constructing the representations of heads and torsos, beginning with cardboard, then wood, and lastly metal. Gabo’s approach was completely radical with no casting and carving. The structure was open and cellular with intersecting planes rather than a closed solid piece of art. The original creation of “Constructed Head No. 2” was made from sheet-iron plates that had been galvanized and painted with yellow ochre paint. The creation, after being exhibited in Moscow, and then Berlin & Holland, was sent back to the Soviet Union by mistake. Gabo got back the sculpture in pieces in the 1950s. He then reconstructed it. Naum reassembled it after stripping off the paint and later made six replicas from different mediums and of different sizes. Gabo created a plastic version of the “Constructed Head No. 2” in the mid 1920s in Germany and a phosphorbronze copy was produced thirty years later. Both these sculptures were of the same scale as the original. The original “Constructed Head No. 2” was exhibited, along with one of the replicas made of metal, in 1968.

Constructive Head no.1, 1915

A sculpture without mass? Gabo’s idea of allowing volume to be created purely by intersecting areas suspended a centuriesold tradition. When the First World War broke out, the Russian Constructivist sought refuge in Kristiania, present-day Oslo, where, with this female bust, he created the pioneering construction principle for his later work. Gabo understood depth as the only form of space. Light and shade should not simply stay on the surface, but penetrate the interior and become part of the sculpture. After Gabo’s death in 1977 the ‘Constructive Head No. 1’ was found in his studio, wrapped in newspaper.

The Constructed Head No 2, 1916. The Constructed Head No. 2 was made from galvanised iron sheet or as the artist referred to the iron,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;planesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and was painted yellow ochre. Various copies where made in plastic and weathering steel. We would call this finish today, corten. The piece below was made in 1977 for the excellent Nasher Sculpture Centre, in Dallas which was produced using stainless steel in 1975 and measures 70 x 54.25 x 48 in. When viewed from either side, the figure appears to be slightly slouched and gazing downwards, almost in a prayerlike thoughtful attitude. From the front the figureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s posture and gaze take on an entirely different air, and it appears to be confronting the viewer almost like it is asking the viewer a question or waiting for an answer.

Constructed Torso 1917, reassembled 1981 Gabo’s construction of a three-dimensional figure is achieved through intersecting planes without the structure having great mass: rather like load-bearing metal ‘H’ beams which carry great weight but themselves have little bulk. Gabo’s adoption of the stereometric system, in which volume is indicated through being bisected rather than surrounded, is thus structural and descriptive. The relatively unarticulated neck and chest areas of Gabo’s earliest constructed heads were radically addressed in the subsequent constructed heads and torsos and ‘Model for Constructed Torso’ marks the attempt to articulate most of the figure in stereometric planes, and in a cubist idiom.

Head of a Woman c. 1917-20 Gabo’s construction of a three-dimensional figure is achieved through intersecting planes without the structure having great mass: rather like load-bearing metal ‘H’ beams which carry great weight but themselves have little bulk. Gabo’s adoption of the stereometric system, in which volume is indicated through being bisected rather than surrounded, is thus structural and descriptive. The relatively unarticulated neck and chest areas of Gabo’s earliest constructed heads were radically addressed in the subsequent constructed heads and torsos and ‘Model for Constructed Torso’ marks the attempt to articulate most of the figure in stereometric planes, and in a cubist idiom.

Constructed Head

02 Constructivism series

The constructivists believed art should directly reflect the modern industrial world. Vladimir Tatlin was crucially influenced by Pablo Picasso’s cubist constructions (Construction 1914) which he saw in Picasso’s studio in Paris in 1913. These were three-dimensional still lifes made of scrap materials. Tatlin began to make his own but they were completely abstract and made of industrial materials. The material formation of the object is to be substituted for its aesthetic combination. The object is to be treated as a whole and thus will be of no discernible ‘style’ but simply a product of an industrial order like a car, an aeroplane and such like. Constructivism is a purely technical mastery and organisation of materials. Constructivism was suppressed in Russia in the 1920s but was brought to the West by Naum Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner and has been a major influence on modern sculpture.

Model for ‘Column’ 1920–1

Many of Gabo’s sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. His proposal that Monument for an Airport could be used to advertise Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never realised. Model for ‘Torsion’, however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Gabo’s increasing concern, from the late 1930s, with the aesthetic aspect of his work at the expense of the industrial can be seen in Model for ‘Construction in Space “Crystal”’.

Constructivism series

Red Cavern c.1926 In 1920, Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner published the Realistic Manifesto which signaled a move away from representation in favour of a new form of art concerned with space and time. During the 1920s Gabo made a number of small sculptural reliefs, which set curved constructions in shallow boxes and niches. Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use of hard industrial materials and plastics is balanced here by the constructionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s red environment, which infuses it with a warm, sensuous hue.

Red Cavern c.1926 This construction is an enlargement of the left-hand section in Model for ‘Double Relief in a Niche’ (1929-30). Despite its mechanistic appearance, it was designed for a domestic setting, though the project was never realised. Gabo’s works for niches developed from his early interest in sculptures that extended across the actual space of a room, which he shared with such Russian artists as Vladimir Tatlin. Here, the curved and rigid forms define the space within and beyond the box.

Constructivism series

Two Cubes (Demonstrating the Stereometric Method) 1930 Gabo used this work to illustrate his essay ‘Sculpture: Carving and Construction in Space’ in the anthology Circle. The two cubes show two ways of defining space in sculpture – one uses solid mass while the other expresses the form’s ‘inner space’. The latter was the key concept behind Gabo’s constructions; he sought to make the space occupied by an object visible without enclosing it. ‘Inner space’ was an example of what Gabo called the ‘Constructive idea’, where the boundaries between

the object and the artist’s perceptions of that object were dissolved, so that ‘art becomes reality’. The two cubes show two ways of defining space in sculpture while the other expresses the form’s ‘inner space’. The latter was the key concept behind Gabo’s It illustrates Gabo’s idea of constructing an object’s inner space. The cubes are made of painted wood, one solid and one inverted. This idea was central to his philosophy of sculpture. As his brother Alexei explained in a 1964 biography: “Its function was not to delimit the boundaries of things but to show the trends of hidden rhythms and forces in them.”

03 Linear Construction

Linear Construction (ca. 1945–46) further emphasizes Gabo’s predilection for modern building supplies, as opposed to traditional ones like marble, clay, or bronze. The rigid Perspex frame with stretched nylon filaments, a design that characterizes Gabo’s later spherical works, again creates the illusion of continuous depth. This work too exists in several reconstructions executed after the initial template, like the version now at the Guggenheim Museum. Gabo’s duplication of forms and insistence on everyday materials is akin to the methodical processes of industrial production. Ultimately, utopian ideals underscore Gabo’s Constructivist works. Rejecting the past and freeing art from the imitation of nature, he believed that his sculptures helped build “more perfected social and spiritual life.” His plastic sculptures are not just literally transparent in surface quality. In dematerializing mass and surface, he also meant to provide a conduit to a “new reality”—a universal reality. Strongly influenced by fellow artist Vasily Kandinsky, who promoted the spiritual nature of art making, Gabo aimed to produce objects that “appeal more to our minds and our feelings than to our crude physical senses.”

Linear Construction No. 1970-1. Gabo wrote to Miss Pulsford when she bought this construction that its date was winter 1942-3 and that he reserved the right to make further copies if required: ‘But as my work cannot be repeated mechanically or cast, I have to do the work anew every time so that each piece is really an original’ (letter of 18 March 1946). Though referred to at that time simply as ‘Linear Construction’, it is of the type later known as ‘Linear Construction No.1, Variation’. The number distinguishes it from several quite different sculptures made subsequently which are known as ‘Linear Construction No.2’ and so on, while ‘Variation’ indicates that it differs from the original version in having a stepped-back (or winged) treatment on two sides instead of having all four sides the same.

Linear Construction No. 2 1970-1. ‘Linear Construction No.2’ exists in over twenty versions, both standing and hanging. The l ightcatching nylon filament is wound around two intersecting plastic planes. The stringing gives a delicate sense of three dimensions in the complicated patterns created by the irregular lobe shapes of the transparent plastic. It was developed from Gabo’s unrealised project for the lobby of the Esso B uilding in New York in the late 1940s. Two sculptures similar to ‘Linear Construction No.2’ were designed to be located on top of the two revolving lobby doors, turning slowly. It was one of Gabo’s favourite works and was presented to the Tate in memory of the art historian Herbert Read. As well as a new home, Gabo’s Linear Construction in Space No. 2 appears to celebrate new materials: it was only shortly before the first example was created that he had discovered the potential of Perspex, then still a new material. Whereas a large number of the examples of this composition incorporated nylon monofilament, another new material, Linear Construction in Space No. 2 instead employs steel springwire. This adds a solidity and taut tension to the composition, while also explaining its alternative title, Construction en matière plastique, aluminium et fils d’acier.

The making of the sculpture ‘Linear Construction No.3 with Red’ 1953 in plastic and nylon threads, with an aluminium base, was the subject of an article by A.L. Chanin in Art News, November 1953. Gabo told Chanin that the first stage in preparing his works was to make a series of pencil sketches to plot the construction from every angle, then to make several small models. Once the final model was done, he would try to enlarge it to the required scale, though this was not a mechanical process which could be carried out by someone else and required intuition and feeling. There are two photographs on page 36 which show him seated at a worktable with this model and what appears to be a second, slighter model for the same piece in front of him. The construction itself was begun late in 1952 and took some three months; it is now in the collection of the late Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York. He afterwards made a further version twice the size, with stainless steel springs instead of nylon threads, which belongs to Mrs Miriam.

T02185 Linear Construction No.3 with Red’ 1890-1977

Linear Construction

Linear Construction No. 4, 1954-1959

The making of the sculpture â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Linear Construction No.3 with Redâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1953 (71cm high) in plastic and nylon threads, with an aluminium base, was the subject of an article by A.L. Chanin in Art News, November 1953. Gabo told Chanin that the first stage in preparing his works was to make a series of pencil sketches to plot the construction from every angle, then to make several small models. Once the final model was done, he would try to enlarge it to the required scale, though this was not a mechanical process which could be carried out by someone else and required intuition and feeling. There are two photographs on page 36 which show him seated at a worktable with this model T02185 and what appears to be a second, slighter model for the same piece in front of him. The construction itself was begun late in 1952 and took some three months; it is now in the collection of the late Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York.

04 Construction in Space

One of Gabo’s most important discoveries was that empty space could be used as an element of sculpture. Constructing his sculptures from sets of interlocking components rather than carving or moulding them from inert mass allowed him to incorporate space into his work more easily. Intended to demonstrate ideas from modern geometry and physics, Gabo’s use of space within sculpture stands alongside Stéphane Mallarmé’s incorporation of page-space into poetry, and John Cage’s incorporation of silence into music, in epitomizing a modern, secular concern with expressing what is unknown as well as what is known: with void as well as form.

Construction in Space: Suspended (1890-1977)

Construction in Space: Suspended emerged as a fully resolved sculpture in the 1960s and was one of the last series of works that Gabo made using the technique of stringing (see C. Sanderson and C. Lodder, “Catalogue Raisonné of the Constructions and Sculptures of Naum Gabo”, in Naum Gabo: Sixty Years of Constructivism, S.A. Nash and J. Merkert (eds.), Munich, 1985, no. 70. This particular sculpture is catalogued as no. 70.14). He had started using this medium in the 1940s when he had employed it for Linear Construction No. 1, which he completed in Britain in 1942, during the dark days of the Second World War. In adopting and adapting this new sculptural method, he may have derived some inspiration from mathematical models, Henry Moore’s earlier stringed figures of 1937, and from his own visits to textile factories in connection with upholstery for the Jowetts’ car project of 1943-44. Unlike Moore, however, Gabo did not use stringing as a visual contrast to solid mass, but rather to delineate forms that were permeated by space and light. He subsequently created several different sculptures, in which the overall configurations were articulated through a series of closely packed strings, which produced an iridescent effect, often reflecting light and defining planes without interrupting the flow of space. Although Gabo’s earlier strung works T were mainly produced using Nylon filament, by the 1960s, he was also beginning to use metallic spring-wire, which was more durable, but produced equally shimmering and dematerialised visual sensations. Most of the

Suspended sculptures were actually made using Nylon filament, but this particular sculpture was one of five that was constructed with stainlesssteel spring-wire. The structure of Suspended is comparatively uncomplicated, consisting of a boldly curved metal cradle which supports a form created from two intersecting planes of transparent Perspex, elaborated with stringing. The solid but shining metal cradle presents a vibrant contrast to the translucent strung form which seems to coalesce from space. The shape of this hanging component is based on the central element of Linear C

Construction In Space

Construction in Space, Suspended 1965

A model for the suspended form in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Construction in Space, Suspendedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1965, which exists in two sizes, 30.5cm high and 57cm high. The finished versions have the form suspended between the ends of an inverted half-circle of metal, mounted on a metal base. The interior of the model is strung with red threads and the outside with colourless threads. There are also two small versions with colour in the centre, one owned by Nina S. Gabo which has black and red on the inner edge of the central perspex structure, and the other (, New York) which has yellow in the same two places, but the other versions are either entirely strung with colourless nylon or with metal springs. A similar but cruder model, entirely strung in red, is in the Tate Archive.

Construction In Space

Construction in Space with Balance on Two Points (1890-1977)

First conceived in 1924-1925, Construction in Space with Balance on Two Points perfectly embodies Gabo’s Constructivist ethos. There is no figurative content, but instead a celebration of material, light, time and space. Here, Gabo has successfully reduced the properties of modern scientific and technological form to its abstract essence, and achieves a free interaction of matter and space. Eric Gibson stated, “Points engages with space in a manner quite different from any sculpture before it. It goes beyond a simple physical involvement with space in the manner of Picasso and Tatlin and enters a realm in which it is no longer clear where matter ends and space begins. Points seems at once to contain space and to be constructed from it, even to move through it while remaining at rest”. As with many of Gabo’s most successful compositions, this elegant, complex construction was executed in various sizes and materials over the course of fifty years. Of the seven versions of Construction in Space with Balance on Two Points listed in the catalogue raisonné of Gabo’s works, most are unique variations rather than reconstructions, varying in scale and appearance. A number are also in museums, including the Yale University Art Gallery and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. Referring to the present lot, Stephen Nash and Jörn Merkert note that, “This version is distinct from the others because pieces at the ends rather than at the angles, and there are no cross-pieces between the quarter-annulars at the base” .

Construction In Space

Construction in Space ‘Two Cones 1927

When Spiral Theme was shown in wartime London, it was greeted with popular acclaim. The transparent planes build upon and reveal the sections below, suggesting emergence and growth. The critic Herbert Read hailed it as ‘the highest point ever reached by the aesthetic intuition of man’. Gabo confessed: ‘It is still a mystery and puzzle to me as to what precisely it is ... that has moved their hearts.’

Construction in Space ‘Crystal 1937

This work is related to a mathematical model in the Institut Poincaré, Paris, representing an ‘oscillating developable of a cubic ellipse’. This model had been shown in May 1936 in the Exposition Surréaliste d’Objets at the Galerie Ratton. Like the Surrealists, Gabo was struck by the lyrical, sometimes fanciful nature of these geometrical models. He later said that he aimed in this work - one of a series on the theme - to ‘take this complicated formula and change its realisation to prove that what was basically a fantasy (the intuition of the mathematician) could be seen through the intuition of an artist’.

Construction In Space

Construction in Space (Crystal) 1937–9

Construction in Space with Crystalline Centre 1938â&#x20AC;&#x201C;40

This construction belongs to a small group of works of the 1930s that are among Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest. It is based on the juxtaposition of organic, sweeping planes which demonstrate the properties of transparency and flexibility in Perspex, and a precise, crystalline centre. These elements embody contrasting energies held in counterpoise: flowing momentum and internal, cell-like division. A photograph of this work, taken by Barbara Hepworth during the Second World War, shows it against the background of the sea at Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where Gabo was living at the time.

Construction In Space

Construction in Space with Crystalline Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; new 1938 There are two larger versions related to this model. They belong to a small group of works of the 1930s that are among Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest. This construction is based on the juxtaposition of organic, sweeping planes which demonstrate the properties of transparency and flexibility in perspex, and a precise, crystalline centre. These elements embody contrasting energies - flowing momentum and internal, cell-like division - held in counterpoise.

Construction in Space: Diagonal 1921–5,

Most of the components of this work were discovered in Gabo’s attic in 1977 and reassembled later. The long vertical elements of the original appear to have been glass, so that it would have been even more transparent. Its construction shows Gabo’s interest in scientific instruments, which were familiar to him having trained in engineering and natural sciences. Indeed, this piece was originally exhibited as ‘Construction for an Observatory’.

05 Kinetic Art

The word kinetic means relating to motion. Since the early twentieth century artists have been incorporating movement into art. This has been partly to explore the possibilities of movement, partly to introduce the element of time, partly to reflect the importance of the machine and technology in the modern world and partly to explore the nature of vision. 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. Indeed, his Kinetic Construction of 1920 is often considered the first work of Kinetic Art. From this point onwards, Gabo’s work incorporated or suggested what he called “kinetic rhythms”, reminding the viewer of a quintessentially modern discovery first made by Albert Einstein, that time and space only exist in relation to each other.

Kinetic Construction (Standing Wave) 1919–20 In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, when this work was made, materials were hard to come by. ‘It w as the height of civil war, hunger and disorder in Russia. To find any part of machinery was next to impos sible’, said Gabo. Originally made to demonstrate the principles of kinetics to his students, it reflects the artist’s belief in a sculpture in which space and time were active components. A strip of metal is made to o scillate so that a standing wave is set up. This movement in real time creates the illusion of volumetric space.

Sketch for a Kinetic Construction,1922 These sketches are for works both realised and unrealised. Sketch (1917) is reminiscent of several reliefs made in the 1920s, and has been compared to Gabo’s 1925 Model for ‘Rotating Fountain’ (on display here). Sketch (1918-19) is for a relief that would have been composed of intersecting planes protruding from a wall or reaching across a corner. Gabo’s aim to make a public art that could play a role in the new society promised by the Russian Revolution is reflected by First Sketch for a Monument¿(1919) Sketch for a Kinetic Construction (1922) demonstrates his radical introduction of real movement to articulate space.

Kinetic Art

Sketch for ‘Rotating Fountain’ 1917 These sketches are for works both realised and unrealised. Sketch (1917) is reminiscent of several reliefs made in the 1920s, and has been compared to Gabo’s 1925 Model for ‘Rotating Fountain’ (on display here). Sketch (1918-19) is for a relief that would have been composed of intersecting planes protruding from a wall or reaching across a corner. Gabo’s aim to make a public art that could play a role in the new society promised by the Russian Revolution is reflected by First Sketch for a Monument¿(1919) Sketch for a Kinetic Construction (1922) demonstrates his radical introduction of real movement to articulate space.

Model for ‘Rotating Fountain’ 1925, reassembled 1986 Like Construction in Space: Diagonal, this work was found in pieces in Gabo’s attic, though the four feet were missing. The project was made into a full-scale fountain, presumably with curved, rotating arms. Originally sited in a Dresden garden, it is now destroyed.

Circular Relief c.1925

Kinetic Art

Construction on a Line 1935–7 Mrs Gabo remembers Naum Gabo showing her the very first tiny model for this work held up in his small pliers when they were living in London before the war, in Cholmely Gardens, where they moved in the spring of 1937 (he also showed her ‘Construction on a Plane’ at the same time). This was probably the model 10.8 cm high presented to the Tate in 1977 (T02178).

Kinetic Art

Model for ‘Construction Through a Plane’ c.1935–7 Many of Gabo’s sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. His proposal that Monument for an Airport could be used to advertise Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never realised. Model for ‘Torsion’, however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Gabo’s increasing concern, from the late 1930s, with the aesthetic aspect of his work at the expense of the industrial can be seen in Model for ‘Construction in Space “Crystal”’.

06 The Thematic

In art, theme is usually about life, society or human nature, but can be any other subject. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a work. Themes are usually implied rather than explicitly stated. Deep thematic content is not required in a work, but the great majority of works have some kind of thematic content, not always intended by the author. Analysis of changes (or implied change) in dynamic characteristics of the work can provide insight into a particular theme. Themes differ from motifs in the visual arts in that themes are ideas conveyed by the visual experience as a whole, while motifs are elements of the content. In the same way, a literary story with repeated symbolism related to chess does not make the storyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme the similarity of life to chess. Themes arise from the interplay of the plot, the characters, and the attitude the author takes to them, and the same story can be given very different themes in the hands of different authors.

Spiral Theme 1941 When Spiral Theme was shown in wartime London, it was greeted with popular acclaim. The transparent planes build upon and reveal the sections below, suggesting emergence and growth. The critic Herbert Read hailed it as ‘the highest point ever reached by the aesthetic intuition of man’. Gabo confessed: ‘It is still a mystery and puzzle to me as to what precisely it is ... that has moved their hearts.’

Spiral Theme(Plastic) 1941 Models were an essential stage in Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working practice. He usually began with drawings, then built models, which allowed him to test the different types of materials he might use. A comparison of the models for Monument for an Airport and Spiral Theme with the finished sculptures on display in this room demonstrates the precision of his enlargement process. Two of the models incorporate pieces of stone, an idea which emerged in 1930-1.

The Thematic

Spheric Theme (Plastic) 1937 Many of Gabo’s sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. His proposal that Monument for an Airport could be used to advertise Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never realised. Model for ‘Torsion’, however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Gabo’s increasing concern, from the late 1930s, with the aesthetic aspect of his work at the expense of the industrial can be seen in Model for ‘Construction in Space “Crystal”’.

Spheric Theme with Centre 1937

Models were an essential stage in Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working practice. He usually began with drawings, then built models, which allowed him to test the different types of materials he might use. A comparison of the models for Monument for an Airport and Spiral Theme with the finished sculptures on display in this room demonstrates the precision of his enlargement process. Two of the models incorporate pieces of stone, an idea which emerged in 1930-1.

The Thematic

Bronze Spheric Theme 1960 Throughout the mathematical objects developed from the 1870s onwards in a pedagogical, scientific, formative manner, which embodies the invisible movements and physical consequences of their calculus, inventing a repertoire of provocative forms in provocative forms â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;art a sudden displacement, as an anterior abstraction to the abstraction. The interest of artists in mathematics is an ancient tendency linked to the invention of perspective, but in the twentieth century the new hypotheses of mathematicians support the approaches of cubists, constructivists and surrealistists. This taste for the representation of imperceptible dynamics will be emphasized then to suggest new simple forms

07 The OpuS series

The artist wrote of this and the four prints P02002-5: ‘All the five prints in question were done during the winter and part of the summer of 1950. Only for one of them, ‘Opus 3’ [P02003], is there a drawing in existence, in the possession of my wife, Miriam Gabo. It is actually much smaller than the engraving and was done in water-colour. I have drawn the others straight on to the wood with a very hard and fine pencil. ’The mere touch of the engraving tool on wood evoked in me the feeling that I was doing carving and I was unexpectedly in my own element. The very next day I had engraved “Opus 1” on a round piece of redwood sawed off from an old furniture leg.

Opus 1 1950

Opus 2 1950

The Opus series

Opus 3 1950

Opus 4 1950

Opus 5 1950

The Opus series

Opus 6 1955â&#x20AC;&#x201C;6

In 1935 the Russian-born artist Naum Gabo, a pioneer of abstraction, arrived in England as a refugee. He influenced the development of Modernism in the 1930s and 1940s and was associated with the artists Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, his neighbours in the fishing village of St Ives during the Second World War. After the war he moved to the USA.

There are strong holdings of Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work in the Collection as a result of his stay in England and of his friendship with a previous Tate Director, Sir Norman Reid. Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s celebrated geometric constructions (see Archive display) examine the object in space. These wood engravings reflect his sculptural concerns in a two-dimensional format.

The Opus series

Opus 7 1956â&#x20AC;&#x201C;73

The Opus series

Opus 8 1969 This print was presented as ‘Opus 7’, but according to Michael Mazur its correct title is ‘Opus 8’. ‘There are 25 untitled but signed proofs’, he writes, ‘as well as 16 others, many with the title Opus 7 on them; of these, five are dated February, 1970’. It would seem therefore that Gabo later decided to change the number, presumably because he wished to change its sequence in the portfolio. Gabo could not remember its exact date, but it appears to have been made some time between April 1968 and February 1970 (when the proofs just mentioned were inscribed), as he commented in a letter of 28 April 1968, when giving information about his previous prints ‘Opus 1-6’ [P02001-6]: ‘Since then I have not had the time to do any more engraving or printing’.

Opus 9 1973

The Opus series

Opus 10 1969

Opus 11 1955

Opus 12 1950

The Opus series

08 The Monumental

Representational compositions created for the facade or interior of a building, as well as monuments erected in public squares, are usually intended to embody and to acquaint the broad masses with the most general social and philosophical ideas of the time or to perpetuate the memory of an eminent person or important event. Forming a synthesis with architecture, works of monumental art give expression to the idea contained in a building, ensemble, or architecturally organized space. Often they are relatively self-contained and are the dominant part of an ensemble. A striving to express lofty ideas dictates the majestic language of their artistic forms and their scalar relationship to man, to surrounding objects and space, and to the natural environment.

Monument for an Airport 1932 Models were an essential stage in Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working practice. He usually began with drawings, then built models, which allowed him to test the different types of materials he might use. A comparison of the models for Monument for an Airport and Spiral Theme with the finished sculptures on display in this room demonstrates the precision of his enlargement process.

The Monumental

The Esso Project, Radio City, New York 1949 Models were an essential stage in Gaboâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working practice. He usually began with drawings, then built models, which allowed him to test the different types of materials he might use. A comparison of the models for Monument for an Airport and Spiral Theme with the finished sculptures on display in this room demonstrates the precision of his enlargement process. Two of the models incorporate pieces of stone, an idea which emerged in 1930-1.

The Monumental

Monument to the Astronauts’ 1966–8 This is a model for a project of Gabo’s own devising for a ‘Monument to the Astronauts’; there is an enlarged version in brass, plastic and stainless steel wire gauze in his estate. Gabo spoke of making this sculpture 18, 20 or 24ft high and placing it at Washington, DC or at Cape Canaveral. He intended the edge of the rotating centre to be outlined with white neon tubes so that at night it could be seen as a floating wave-like form. He was fond of demonstrating the visual effect of the rotation by making it rotate by blowing with a tube from a (reversed) vacuum cleaner.

The Monumental

Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner 1952 This model was Gabo’s entry to the Unknown Political Prisoner competition. The competition was won by Reg Butler. In the final exhibition of entries at the Tate Gallery in 1953, Gabo was one of four artists awarded a second prize. In the catalogue he noted: ‘the tyrant wants us to be in fear of him and the artist’s task is not to perpetuate that fear but rather to encourage resistance. The conception of my image for the monument is glory to him who goes to the stake and vanquishes the fear of pain and torture for the sake of his belief.’

The Monumental

Construction at the Bijenkorf Building, Rotterdam 1955 After the first project for a sculpture against the faรงade of the Bijenkorf building had been abandoned (see the note on T02189), Marcel Breuer sounded Gabo in the middle of November 1954 about the possibility of making a free-standing work. A few days later, on 26 November 1954, Breuer sent a telegram to the Bijenkorf authorities to tell them that he had obtained building permission from the senior officials of the municipality to erect a free-standing sculpture. Gabo finished his model for this at the beginning of May 1955 and his design was discussed with the Rotterdam authorities on 23 May. At that meeting, or shortly afterwards, it was decided to have a large-scale model made which arrived in October 1955 and still belongs to the Bijenkorf company.

Model for ‘Torsion’ c.1928 Many of Gabo’s sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. His proposal that Monument for an Airport could be used to advertise Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never realised. Model for ‘Torsion’, however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Gabo’s increasing concern, from the late 1930s, with the aesthetic aspect of his work at the expense of the industrial can be seen in Model for ‘Construction in Space “Crystal”’.

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Torsion (new) 1928â&#x20AC;&#x201C;36 In his constructions, Gabo sought to create a sense of a defined space without enclosing or delimiting it. Radically, he used transparent materials to achieve this. Part of the ideology of his constructivism was that individual works could be made numerous times in different sizes and from different materials. This piece was conceived in 1928 but the actual object was constructed in London in 1936 using Perspex, a new material that was clearer and more malleable than others. In late years Gabo used the same form for a fountain that can be seen on the south bank of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The Monumental

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Torsion (Bronze) 1928–36 Revolving Torsion is a 1972–73 kinetic sculpture and fountain by the Russianborn Constructivist artist Naum Gabo. It was commissioned for the Tate Gallery and has been on long-term loan to the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity for display at St Thomas’ Hospital in Lambeth, London, since 1975. It was designated a Grade II*listed building in January 2016. The sculpture is the culmination of an idea that Gabo developed from the mid1920s, to implement the ideas published in his 1920 Realistic Manifesto. He made a series of models and maquettes over the years, including his work of c. 1929 Model for “Torsion”, a small 10 centimetres-high Perspex model; his larger work Torsion from 1929–37, a 35 centimetres (14 in)high model also in Perspex; and his 1960– 64 Torsion (Project for a Fountain), an 80 centimetres (31 in)-high bronze maquette.

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