IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB-70-tga-9314
Held at: Tate Britain
Title: GABO, Sir Naum ([1890-1977]): printmaking archive
Date(s): 1940s-1970s
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 box, 9 folders
Name of creator(s): Gabo | Sir | Naum [formerly Neyemiya Borisovich Pevzner] | [1890]-1977 | Knight | sculptor
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical 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 Heinrich Wölfflin. 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 ballett 'La Chatte'. In 1932 Gabo moved back to Paris and became a member of Abstraction Création. In 1936 he left Paris, moved to London and married Miriam Franklin (née Israels) in 1937. Gabo edited 'Circle: International Survey of Constructivist Art' along with J.L. Martin and Ben Nicholson. Gabo became good friends with Nicholson, and in 1939 he moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where Nicholson was also based. In 1944 Gabo joined the Design Research Unit and in 1946 he moved to the USA, settling in Conneticut in 1953. He became 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 commmissions, including one for the Bijenkorf store in Rotterdam. In 1971 Gabo was awarded an Honorary KBE. He died in Conneticut in 1977.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The printmaking archive of the sculptor, Naum Gabo, [1940-1977].
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged as follows:
TGA 9314/1 Monoprints
TGA 9314/2 Lithographs
TGA 9314/3 Proofs and negatives of 'Blue Print' lithograph
TGA 9314/4 Etchings
TGA 9314/5 Original sketches and drawings for prints
TGA 9314/6 Cover for print edition
TGA 9314/7 Material by others
Conditions governing access:
Open. Access to all registered users.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Usual copyright restrictions apply.
Finding aids:
Online and paper catalogue available
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Archive by Graham Williams, 1993.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Suzanne Keyte for AIM25 from the Tate Archive catalogue.
Date(s) of descriptions: 1994