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After the October Revolution in 1917, the new design of public space was among the priorities of the government. Sculptural decoration of squares, kiosks, tribunes, and towers was planned, where people could read, listen to news, and express their own thoughts publicly. While many of these projects remained on paper, the goal was to erect them throughout the city centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg for the propagation of new social and political ideas. Important avant-garde artists, including Lissitzky, Klutsis, and Tatlin, participated in this project.
Gabo’s "Project for a Tower" falls in this era. Its main features appear to be a lower platform for speakers and a radio station on the top. The tower’s shape reflects the linear and spiraling dynamic that is typical of the artist’s work.
BJ, 2014
Returning to Russia with his brother Antoine Pevsner soon after the February Revolution of 1917, Naum Gabo became one of the avant-garde artists actively seeking to construct the new world through art. Taking inspiration in the work of the pioneer abstractionists Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin, he turned to abstraction in sculpture. In the “Realist Manifesto” (1920), which he co-authored with his brother, Gabo praised the aesthetics of mathematics and engineering: “The plumb-line in our hand, eyes as precise as a ruler, in a spirit as taut as a compass… we construct our work as the universe constructs its own, as the engineer constructs his bridges, as the mathematician his formula of the orbits.” This drawing is a rare example of Gabo’s architectural projects. He designed this one for a historical square in the center of Moscow. It demonstrates his fascination with light and spatial constructions, expressive silhouettes, and dynamic rhythms that reduced the role of the static architectural mass to a minimum. The sophisticated and ultra-modern look of the tower makes it clear that the construction of the tower would require a lot of resources and, therefore, would be impossible during the ongoing Civil War. The utopian character of the building, as well as its dynamic composition, echo one of the most celebrated architectural projects of the early 20th century: the Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin, envisioned simultaneously in 1919.
Maria Timina, 2023
Tags:
architecture; design; sketches; towers Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2001.194 |
