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Naum Gabo Biography
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1890 |
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Born 5 August in Briansk, Russia. Named Naum Neemia Pevsner. He had four brothers, including Alexei and Antoine, and two sisters.
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1910 |
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Graduated from Gymnasium at Kursk. Enrolled in medical faculty at University of Munich.
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1911 |
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Transferred to study of natural sciences.
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1912 |
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Studied engineering at Technische Hochschule, Munich. During these years attended Professor Wölfflin’s lectures on the History of Art. First visit to Paris.
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1913 |
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Walking tour through Italy from Munich to Florence and Venice.
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1913 - 1914 |
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Visited brother Antoine who was painting in Paris.
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1914 |
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At outbreak of war went to Copenhagen, Bergen, and then Oslo with younger brother Alexei
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1915 |
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Made first constructions using the name Gabo. December: joined by elder brother Antoine.
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1917 |
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April: returned to Russia.
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1918 - 1920 |
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Worked on constructions and taught unofficially at State Free Art Studios. Project for a radio station at Serpukhov.
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1920 |
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First public exhibition in the open air on Tverskoi Boulevard, Moscow. Wrote Realistic Manifesto, published in Moscow, which was also signed by brother Antoine. First construction with motor.
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1922 |
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Left Moscow for Berlin. Helped to install and exhibited in the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung, organised by the Soviet Government at the Galerie van Diemen, Berlin. ‘Project for a Monument for an Observatory’.
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1924 |
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Exhibited at the Galerie Percier, Paris: Constructivistes Russes: Gabo et Pevsner and was included in Societé Anonyme, Russian exhibition in New York.
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1924 - 1925 |
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‘Project for a Monument for an Airport’.
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1925 |
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Project for a Monument for an Institute of Physics and Mathematics.
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1926 |
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Exhibited in America at the Little Review Gallery, New York, with van Doesburg and Pevsner. Began work on La Chatte.
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1927 |
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April 30, first performance of La Chatte at the Casino Theatre in Monte Carlo with sets, costumes and properties designed and executed by Gabo with assistance from Pevsner (the production also travelled to Paris, London and Berlin).
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1928 |
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Lectured at Bauhaus. Published article ‘Gestaltung?’ in the periodical Bauhaus (vol. 2 no. 4).
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1929 |
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Project for a Fête Lumière for the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.
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1930 |
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First one-man exhibition of constructions at the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover.
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1931 |
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Project for the Palace of the Soviets Competition.
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1922 - 1932 |
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Lived and worked in Berlin.
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1932 |
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Left Germany for Paris. ‘Project for a Monument for an Airport’.
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1932 - 1935 |
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Member of the group Abstraction-Création.
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1935 |
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First visit to England.
Exhibited in Hartford, Connecticut with Pevsner, Domela and Mondrian.
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1936 |
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Exhibited with fifteen artists in Abstract and Concrete at the Lefèvre Gallery, London. Exhibited with Pevsner at the Chicago Arts Club. Seven works included in Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Settled in London. Married Miriam Israels in London.
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1937 |
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Edited with J. L. Martin and Ben Nicholson Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art. Two works included in large Constructivist exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel, and two in Constructivist exhibition at the London Gallery, London. Participated in exhibition in Jeu de Paume, Paris.
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1938 |
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One-man exhibition at the London Gallery, London. Visited the United States: exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York and at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.
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1939 |
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At outbreak of war moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Exhibited one work in the San Francisco Golden Gate exhibition, another in Toledo, Ohio, two in Guggenheim Jeune, London, one in Museum of Modern Art, New York, more than one in Galerie Charpentier, Paris.
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1941 |
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Birth of daughter Nina Serafima.
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1942 |
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Exhibited in New Movements in Art: Contemporary Work in England, London Museum, London and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.
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1942 |
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The Exhibition of the Collection of the Societé Anonyme - Museum of Modern Art, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
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1943 - 1944 |
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Worked with Design Research Unit, London. Produced an advanced design for a car for Jowett which did not go into production.
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1946 |
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Left England for the United States.
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1948 |
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Exhibited with Pevsner at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lectured at Museum of Modern Art and at Yale and Chicago Institute of Design.
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1949 |
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Commissioned to design sculptures for lobbies of the Esso Building, Rockefeller Center, New York (project never realised). Participated in Les Premières maîtres de l’art abstrait organised by Michael Seuphor at Galerie Maeght, Paris.
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1950 |
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Commissioned to make construction for the Sadie A. May wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Exhibited and lectured at Baltimore Museum of Art.
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1951 |
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Baltimore construction completed and installed. Exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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1952 |
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Became a citizen of the United States of America. Exhibition, with Josef Albers, at the Chicago Arts Club.
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1953 |
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One-man exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Exhibition, with Alexander Calder, at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Awarded second prize in the Unknown Political Prisoner, international sculpture competition.
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1953 - 1954 |
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Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Architecture.
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1954 |
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Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship. Awarded Mr and Mrs Frank G. Logan Medal of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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1954 - 1955 |
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Commissioned to make sculpture for the Bijenkorf Building in Rotterdam.
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1956 |
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Commissioned to make bas-relief for the US Rubber Company, Rockefeller Center, New York. Completed in November.
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1957 |
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Bijenkorf construction, 85 feet high, completed and installed. Publication of Gabo book by Lund Humphries.
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1958 |
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One-man exhibition, Boymans Museum, Rotterdam and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
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1959 |
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Delivered A. W. Mellon Lectures, Washington D.C. Brother Alexei re- discovered Gabo through an exhibition catalogue.
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1960 |
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Prize from the Brandeis University.
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1961 |
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Participated in exhibitions of kinetic art held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
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1962 |
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Visited brothers Mark, Jeremy and Alexei, and sister Anna, in Moscow and Leningrad. Antoine Pevsner died.
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1964 |
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Publication of Alexei Pevsner’s book A Biographical Sketch of my Brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner.
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1965 |
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Elected member of the National Institute of Art and Letters.
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1965 - 1966 |
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Retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Mannheim; Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg; Kunsthaus Zürich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Tate Gallery, London.
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1966 |
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Elected to Royal Academy of Arts, Sweden.
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1967 |
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Awarded Honorary Doctorate at Royal College of Art, London. Awarded Großer Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.
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1968 |
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Retrospective exhibition at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Alexei Pevsner visited Gabo in America.
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1969 |
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Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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1970 |
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Commissioned to make Torsion fountain, installed at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London in 1975.
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1971 |
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Made an Honorary K.B.E.
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1970 - 1972 |
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Travelling Exhibition: Louisiana Museet, Humlebaek, Denmark; Sonia Henies Museum, Høvikodden, Norway; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Kunstverein Hannover; Musée de Peinture et Sculpture, Grenoble; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
Alexei Pevsner visited Gabo in London.
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1973 |
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Commissioned to make sculpture for the Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
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1975 |
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Elected to 50-member American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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1976 |
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November 16: opening of St. Thomas’s Hospital, London and inauguration of Torsion fountain by Queen Elizabeth II.
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1976 - 1977 |
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November - January: One-man exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.
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1977 |
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August 23, died in Waterbury (Connecticut) Hospital after a long illness.
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1985 - 1987 |
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Major retrospective Naum Gabo. Sixty Years of Constructivism shown at Dallas Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; The Tate Gallery, London.
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1987 - 1988 |
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Exhibition of monoprints shown at the Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh and Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. In 1989 tours to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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1990 |
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Centenary exhibition inaugurates new gallery space of Annely Juda Fine Art.
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1999 |
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Naum Gabo, Annely Juda Fine Art, London. Naum Gabo: Pioneer of Abstract Sculpture at Pace Wildenstein Gallery, New York
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2001 |
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Naum Gabo, Georges Vantongerloo, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart -Works On Paper, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
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| Selected Exhibitions |
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2009
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La Escultura en la Colección del IVAM - IVAM - Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia
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2006
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Naum Gabo - Woodcut Monoprints - Alan Cristea Gallery, London (England) (solo)
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2004
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Naum Gabo and Colour - Annely Juda Fine Art, London (England) (solo)
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1999
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Naum Gabo: Pioneer of Abstract Sculpture - PaceWildenstein - 32 East 57th Street, New York City, NY (solo)
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1999
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Naum Gabo - Annely Juda Fine Art, London (England) (solo)
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1995
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Gabo's Stones: Naum Gabo - Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (England) (solo)
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1977
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Naum Gabo 1890-1977 - MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY (solo)
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Public Collections
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
Leeum - Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, Birmingham (England), UK
Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (England), UK
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds (England), UK
Tate Britain, London (England), UK
Tate Modern, London (England), UK
Tate St. Ives, St. Ives, Cornwall (England), UK
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI, USA
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY, USA
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| Literature |
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Naum Gabo et al., Gabo: Constructions, Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Lund Humphries, London and Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1957
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Alexei Pevsner, A Biographical Sketch of my Brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, Augustin and Schoonman, Amsterdam 1964
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Jörn Merkert and Steven Nash (eds), Naum Gabo. Sixty Years of Constructivism, Prestel Verlag, Munich 1985 (includes C. Sanderson and C. Lodder, ‘Catalogue Raisonné of the Constructions and Sculptures’)
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Graham Williams (ed.), Naum Gabo Monoprints, The Florin Press, Kent 1987
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Jörn Merkert (ed.), Naum Gabo: Ein Russischer Konstruktivist in Berlin 1922-32, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin 1989
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Naum Gabo 1890-1977: Centenary Exhibition, Annely Juda Fine Art, London 1990
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Naum Gabo, Annely Juda Fine Art, London 1999
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Martin Hammer and Christina Lodder, Gabo on Gabo: Texts and Interviews, Artist Bookworks, Sussex 2000
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Martin Hammer and Christina Lodder, Constructing Modernity. The Art and Career of Naum Gabo, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2000
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