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Description: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

1890-1977
LINEAR CONSTRUCTION IN SPACE NO. 3, WITH RED

height: 152cm., 59 7/8 in.

Executed in 1957-58.

inscribed Gabo and dated 57

Perspex and stainless-steel with stainless-steel spring-wire and red paint on aluminum and wood base

PROVENANCE

Miriam Gabo (the artist's wife; acquired from the artist)
Jeffrey H. Loria, New York (acquired in 1980)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Brussels, Palais International des Beaux-Arts, 50 ans d'art moderne, 1958, no. 96
Kassel, Fridericianum Museum, Documenta '59. Kunst nach 1945. Internationale Ausstellung, 1959, no. 2
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition 1960, Sculpture and Drawings, 1960-61, no. 28
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Naum Gabo, 1965, no. P19 (as dating from 1953)
Mannheim, Kunsthalle & Duisburg, Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum der Stadt Duisburg, Naum Gabo, 1965, no. 18
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Naum Gabo, 1965, no. 18
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Den Inre och den Yttre Rymden, 1965-66, no. 76
London, The Tate Gallery, Naum Gabo: Constructions, Paintings, Drawings, 1966, no. 22, illustrated in the catalogue (as dating from 1953)
Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Naum Gabo, 1968, no. 12
Humlebæk, Louisiana Museum & Høvikodden, Sonja Henies og Niels Onstadts Stiftelser, Naum Gabo and Egill Jacobsen, 1970-71, no. 6, illustrated in colour on the cover of the catalogue (as dating from 1953)
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Naum Gabo, 1971, no. 5, illustrated in colour on the cover of the catalogue
Hanover, Kunstverein, Naum Gabo, 1971, no. 5, illustrated in the catalogue
Grenoble, Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture & Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Naum Gabo, 1971-72, no. 5
Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Naum Gabo, 1972, no. 5
Dallas, Museum of Art; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Berlin, Akademie der Künste; Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & London, The Tate Gallery, Naum Gabo. Sixty Years of Constructivism, 1985-87, no. 47, illustrated in the catalogue and illustrated in colour on the back cover of the catalogue

LITERATURE

Robert B. Bollman, 'Middlebury Sculptor's Art Acclaimed in Europe', in Waterbury Sunday Republican, 15th December 1957, illustrated p. 6
'Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles 1958', in Les Arts, Brussels, 1960, illustrated p. 32
Naum Gabo, Of Divers Arts, Princeton, 1962, illustrated in colour fig. 37
Painting and Sculpture of a Decade '54-'64 (exhibition catalogue), The Tate Gallery, London, 1964, illustrated
Olle Granath, 'Infinity as Form', in Konstrevy, Stockholm, 1966, illustrated p. 13
Michael Webb, 'Sculpture of Space and Time', in Country Life, London, 24th March 1966, fig. 5, illustrated pp. 660-661
Cleve Gray, 'Naum Gabo Talks about Constructivism', in Art in America, New York, November-December 1966, illustrated p. 55
David Thompson, 'Naum Gabo Talks to David Thompson', in Art Monthly, London, February 1977, illustrated in colour p. 134
'Art Exhibitions', in Time, New York, 15th March 1968, illustrated p. 43
Maurice Besset, 'Gabo et l'abstraction scientifique', in L'Oeil, Paris, November 1971, illustrated p. 11
Laura B. Thurston, 'A Visit to Naum Gabo', in Amerika: America Illustrated, Washington, D. C., December 1976, illustrated in colour p. 16
Steven A. Nash & Jörn Merkert (ed.), Naum Gabo. Sixty Years of Constructivism, Including Catalogue Raisonné of the Constructions and Sculptures, 1985, no. 62.4, illustrated p. 129; catalogued p. 242
Martin Hammer & Christina Lodder, Constructing Modernity: The Art & Career of Naum Gabo, New Haven & London, 2000, no. 226, illustrated in colour p. 347

NOTE

Linear Construction in Space No. 3, with Red is one of Naum Gabo's most stunning and complex sculptures, demonstrating the artist's key place as a pioneer of the Constructivist movement. Executed with materials such Perspex, wire and aluminium, it exemplifies Gabo's constant quest for expanding the boundaries and breaking new grounds in the medium of sculpture. Martin Hammer and Christina Lodder discussed the present work:

'Linear Construction No. 3 is highly distinctive in that sections of the open surround are a vivid red. Rather than using coloured Perspex, Gabo painted vermillion pigment onto colourless plastic. The translucent effect of the other sections was produced by abrading the plastic. The outer framework is the dominant feature of the sculpture, appearing to hold the entire form rigid and upright. The idea is developed from the two intersecting and inverted curvilinear planes, as used in Linear Construction No. 2, but these are now reduced to a shaped frame around a central void, recalling 1920s sculptures such as Diagonal. Within the internal space, semi-transparent planes of nylon stringing twist around a central feature which appears to float, without a visible support. This kernel comprises a pair of sections of circles, defined by black edges, which are also inverted and intersected along axes coinciding with those of the frame. The contrasting shapes, colours, textures and rhythms revolve themselves into a sequence of integrated spatial compositions, with the central vertical axis supplying a continuous visual anchor.

The coherence of Linear Construction No. 3 depends upon optical correspondences rather than physical relationships of support and linkage. Indeed, the apparent physical structure is completely illusory. The central sections of circles are in fact created by thin strips of metal, painted black, inserted along the edges of negative shapes cut out of the two large planes of transparent Perspex which intersect along the vertical axis of the construction. These are effectively invisible, except when they catch the light. The nylon stringing is held in place by notches set into the curved contours of these transparent planes, as in Linear Construction No. 2. This arrangement is concealed by the superimposed elements of painted or abraded plastic which comprise the outer framework. This visually dominant element has, therefore, no structural purpose. The idea of building up a form within and around unseen structural planes was developed from the suspended element in the Baltimore Construction.

The immaterial quality of Linear Construction No. 3 is heightened by the design of the two planes set at right angles. If these are viewed face-on, the outer faces of the red element in the frame continue the internal contours of the translucent shape, and vice versa. Thus the configuration as a whole can be read as two separate superimposed flat planes, with the transparent centre corresponding to their substantial area of overlap. These generate contradictory spatial readings; the plane abutting the base appears to be tilted backwards into space, and the other plane seems to be suspended from the top of the construction and to recede perspectively. In the process of viewing the work from all angles, these ambiguities disrupt any sense of tangible structure, and reinforce the illusion of movement and spatial flow' (M. Hammer & C. Lodder, op. cit., p. 346).