Limited Edition Issue 10 | Page 7

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Organisers of the First Russian Exhibition, Berlin, which opened on 15 October 1922 (from left): David Shterenberg, Head of IZO, D Maryanov, representative of the Russian security services, Natan Altman, Naum Gabo and Friedrich Lutz of the Galerie van Diemen. In the foreground is the lost iron version of Gabo's Constructed Torso 1917. (Photo from Tate Papers No 14, Autumn 2010, Naum Gabo as a Soviet Emigre in Berlin by Christina Lodder © Nina Williams)

Gabo witnessed the brutality of the 1905 uprisings in Russia, which influenced his attitude to the importance of art in life and led to the Realistic Manifesto launched in 1920.

Space and time are the only forms on which life is built and hence art must be constructed…

I believe art to be the most immediate and most effective of all means of communication between human beings. Gabo, N and Pevzner, A 1920

When he was a teenager, Gabo moved to Munich, Germany to study medicine, natural sciences and philosophy (including Einstein and Kant.) From 1912-13 he studied engineering and art history.

He travelled to visit his brother, Nathan, (later known at Antoine) who worked as a painter in Paris. There he met Picasso and Braque. He also did a ‘grand tour’ of Italy.

At the outbreak of WW1 he fled to Norway via Denmark with his brother, Alexei. There he first called himself an artist and made constructions in card and plywood.

Model for the Constructed Torso (c 1917). Cardboard, reassembled in 1981. No realisation of a sculpture from this cardboard model exists now.