| Administrative History | Naum Gabo was born Naum Pevsner in Russia, in 1890. He was the younger brother of the sculptor Antoine Pevsner. Gabo went to Munich University in 1910 to study medicine and natural sciences, but also attended art history lectures by Wolfflin. In 1912 he transferred to an engineering school in Munich. In 1913 he joined Antoine, then a painter, in Paris and whilst there he met Kandinsky. After the outbreak of war, Gabo moved from Paris to Copenhagen and then to Oslo. From 1915 he began to make constructions under the name Naum Gabo. Between 1917 and 1922, Gabo was in Moscow with his brother. Whilst there, they jointly wrote and issued a 'Realistic Manifesto' on the tenets of pure Constructivism. In 1922 Gabo moved to Berlin, where he lived in contact with artists of the de Stijl group and the Bauhaus. In 1926 he co-designed with Antoine, costumes for Diaghilev's ballet 'La Chatte'. In 1932 Gabo moved back to Paris and became a member of Abstraction Creation. He remained there until 1936. In 1936 Gabo married Miriam Israels, a painter and great niece of the Hague School painter Jozef Israels. Later the same year, they moved to London. In 1937, Gabo edited 'Circle: International Survey of Constructivist Art' along with J.L. Martin and Ben Nicholson. Gabo became good friends with Ben Nicholson, and in 1939 he moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where Ben was also based. In 1944 he joined the Design Research Unit. In 1946 Gabo moved to the USA, settling in Connecticut in 1953. He had become a US citizen in 1952. Between 1953 and 1954, he was a professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Harvard University. From 1950 onwards, Gabo took a number of sculpture commissions, including one for the Bijenkorf store in Rotterdam. In 1971 Gabo was awarded an Honourary KBE. He died in Connecticut in 1977.
Gabo first had the idea for a revolving fountain in the 1920s and made a small model 'Torsion' in 1928, which is now in the Tate Collection (T02171). In 1969 discussions began between the artist and Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons Limited to collaborate on a full-scale construction. The fountain was eventually made in 1972-73 and is situated outside St Thomas' Hospital, London. The architectural drawings were all made by Matthew Hall Engineering Limited for Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons Limited as McAlpine bore the costs of construction. |
| Custodial History | Most of the collection was presented to the Archive by the artist's widow, Miriam Gabo, in 1978, and the preliminary drawings were added by the artist's daughter, Nina Williams, in 1980. |