Gabo, Naum, << GAH buh or GAH boh, nowm >> (1890-1977), was a Russian-born sculptor. He is associated with a Soviet art movement of the 1920’s called constructivism. Gabo settled in the United States in 1946.
Gabo was one of the first sculptors to experiment with plastics, glass, and wire. Using transparent and translucent materials, he tried to integrate space as a positive element of his works. Gabo’s later works used curved, transparent, and overlapping surfaces to suggest weightlessness, movement, and space. The clarity and precision of his sculpture seem to refer to mathematical and scientific ideas. Gabo was also an early experimenter in kinetic (moving) sculpture.
Gabo was born in Bryansk, Russia. He changed his family name–Pevsner–to avoid confusion with his brother, the sculptor Antoine Pevsner. Gabo was also a painter, designer, and architect.
