Gabo, Naum

Russian-born US abstract sculptor. One of the leading exponents of constructivism, he was one of the first artists to make kinetic sculpture. In later works he often used transparent plastics in works that attempt to define space rather than occupy it, as in Linear Construction (1942; Tate Gallery, London).

Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner published their ideas in the Realist Manifesto (1920). From this period date many of Gabo's most important works, including geometric constructions in metal and transparent plastic and the Vibrating Rod (1920; Tate Gallery, London), one of the earliest sculptures employing real motion. In the 1920s he taught at the Bauhaus school of design in Germany.