Gabo, Naum

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Naum Gabo

orig. Naum Pevsner

born Aug. 5, 1890, Bryansk, Russia

died Aug. 23, 1977, Waterbury, Conn., U.S.

Russian-born U.S. sculptor.

He studied at the University of Munich, and in 1913 he was introduced to avant-garde art in Paris by his brother, Antoine Pevsner. In 1920 the brothers returned to Russia and issued the Realist Manifesto, setting forth the principles of European Constructivism. Gabo produced abstract works of such unorthodox materials as glass, plastic, and wire to achieve a sense of movement. After some years in Europe he settled in the U.S. in 1946 and taught at Harvard's architecture school. He received many awards and public commissions. A pioneer of the Constructivist movement, he was one of the earliest artists to experiment with kinetic sculpture.

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More on "Naum Gabo" from Britannica Concise:

kinetic sculpture - Sculpture in which movement (as of a motor-driven part or a changing electronic image) is a basic element.

Pevsner, Antoine - Russian-born French sculptor and painter.

Constructivism - Russian movement in art and architecture, initiated in 1914 by the abstract geometric constructions of Vladimir Tatlin.

More on "Naum Gabo" from the 32 Volume Encyclopædia Britannica:

Gabo, Naum - pioneering Constructivist sculptor who used materials such as glass, plastic, and metal and created a sense of spatial movement in his work.

mobile - abstract sculpture that has moving parts, driven either by motors or the natural force of wind. The word mobile was initially suggested by Marcel Duchamp for a 1932 Paris exhibition of such works by the American artist Alexander Calder. One of Calder's first mobiles consisted of coloured spheres motorized to move up and down curving wires at different speeds. Later, he developed wind mobiles ...

Pevsner, Antoine - Russian-born French sculptor and painter who-like his brother, Naum Gabo-advanced the Constructivist style.

Constructivism - Russian artistic and architectural movement that was first influenced by Cubism and Futurism and is generally considered to have been initiated in 1913 with the "painting reliefs"-abstract geometric constructions-of Vladimir Tatlin. The expatriate Russian sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo joined Tatlin and his followers in Moscow, and upon publication of their jointly written Realist ...

sculpture, Western - Between 1912 and 1914 there emerged an antisculptural movement, called Constructivism, that attacked the false seriousness and hollow moral ideals of academic art. The movement began with the relief fabrications of Vladimir Tatlin in 1913. The Constructivists and their sympathizers preferred industrially manufactured materials, such as plastics, glass, iron, and steel, to marble and bronze. Their ...

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