'Model for 'Column'', Naum Gabo

Artwork details

Artist

Naum Gabo (1890‑1977)

Title

Model for 'Column'

Date 1920-21

MediumCellulose nitrate

Dimensionsobject: 143 x 95 x 95 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by the artist 1977

Reference

T02167

Not on display

Display caption

Many of Gabo's sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They were often projects for monumental public schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and architecture came together. His proposal that Monument for an Airport could be used to advertise Imperial Airways, as either a desk display or an outdoor sculpture, was never realised. Model for 'Torsion', however, was eventually translated into a large fountain outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. Gabo's increasing concern, from the late 1930s, with the aesthetic aspect of his work at the expense of the industrial can be seen in Model for 'Construction in Space "Crystal"'.

August 2004