Timeline

1890

Born 5 August in Briansk, Russia. Named Naum Neemia Pevsner. He had four brothers, including Alexei and Antoine, and two sisters.

1910 - 1914

In Munich.

1910

Graduated from Gymnasium at Kursk. Enrolled in medical faculty at University of Munich.

1911

Transferred to study of natural sciences.

1912

Studied engineering at Technische Hochschule, Munich. During these years attended Professor Wölfflin’s lectures on the History of Art. First visit to Paris.

1913 - 1914

Visited brother Antoine who was painting in Paris.

1913

Walking tour through Italy from Munich to Florence and Venice.

1914

At outbreak of war went to Copenhagen, Bergen, and then Oslo with younger brother Alexei

1915

Made first constructions using the name Gabo. December: joined by elder brother Antoine.

1917

April: returned to Russia.

1918 - 1920

Worked on constructions and taught unofficially at State Free Art Studios. Project for a radio station at Serpukhov.

1920

First public exhibition in the open air on Tverskoi Boulevard, Moscow. Wrote Realistic Manifesto, published in Moscow, which was also signed by brother Antoine. First construction with motor.

1922 - 1932

Lived and worked in Berlin.

1922

Left Moscow for Berlin. Helped to install and exhibited in the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung, organised by the Soviet Government at the Galerie van Diemen, Berlin. ‘Project for a Monument for an Observatory’.

1924 - 1925

‘Project for a Monument for an Airport’.

1924

Exhibited at the Galerie Percier, Paris: Constructivistes Russes: Gabo et Pevsner and was included in Societé Anonyme, Russian exhibition in New York.

1925

Project for a Monument for an Institute of Physics and Mathematics.

1926

Exhibited in America at the Little Review Gallery, New York, with van Doesburg and Pevsner. Began work on La Chatte.

1927

April 30, first performance of La Chatte at the Casino Theatre in Monte Carlo with sets, costumes and properties designed and executed by Gabo with assistance from Pevsner (the production also travelled to Paris, London and Berlin).

1928

Lectured at Bauhaus. Published article ‘Gestaltung?’ in the periodical Bauhaus (vol. 2 no. 4).

1929

Project for a Fête Lumière for the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.

1930

First one-man exhibition of constructions at the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover.

1931

Project for the Palace of the Soviets Competition.

1932 - 1935

Member of the group Abstraction-Création.

1932

Left Germany for Paris. ‘Project for a Monument for an Airport’.

1935

First visit to England.
Exhibited in Hartford, Connecticut with Pevsner, Domela and Mondrian.

1936

Exhibited with fifteen artists in Abstract and Concrete at the Lefèvre Gallery, London. Exhibited with Pevsner at the Chicago Arts Club. Seven works included in Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Settled in London. Married Miriam Israels in London.

1937

Edited with J. L. Martin and Ben Nicholson Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art. Two works included in large Constructivist exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel, and two in Constructivist exhibition at the London Gallery, London. Participated in exhibition in Jeu de Paume, Paris.

1938

One-man exhibition at the London Gallery, London. Visited the United States: exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York and at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

1939

At outbreak of war moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Exhibited one work in the San Francisco Golden Gate exhibition, another in Toledo, Ohio, two in Guggenheim Jeune, London, one in Museum of Modern Art, New York, more than one in Galerie Charpentier, Paris.

1941

Birth of daughter Nina Serafima.

1942

Exhibited in New Movements in Art: Contemporary Work in England, London Museum, London and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.

The Exhibition of the Collection of the Societé Anonyme - Museum of Modern Art, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

1943 - 1944

Worked with Design Research Unit, London. Produced an advanced design for a car for Jowett which did not go into production.

1946

Left England for the United States.

1948

Exhibited with Pevsner at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lectured at Museum of Modern Art and at Yale and Chicago Institute of Design.

1949

Commissioned to design sculptures for lobbies of the Esso Building, Rockefeller Center, New York (project never realised). Participated in Les Premières maîtres de l’art abstrait organised by Michael Seuphor at Galerie Maeght, Paris.

1950

Commissioned to make construction for the Sadie A. May wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Exhibited and lectured at Baltimore Museum of Art.

1951

Baltimore construction completed and installed. Exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1952

Became a citizen of the United States of America. Exhibition, with Josef Albers, at the Chicago Arts Club.

1953 - 1954

Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Architecture.

1953

One-man exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Exhibition, with Alexander Calder, at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Awarded second prize in the Unknown Political Prisoner, international sculpture competition.

1954 - 1955

Commissioned to make sculpture for the Bijenkorf Building in Rotterdam.

1954

Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship. Awarded Mr and Mrs Frank G. Logan Medal of the Art Institute of Chicago.

1956

Commissioned to make bas-relief for the US Rubber Company, Rockefeller Center, New York. Completed in November.

1957

Bijenkorf construction, 85 feet high, completed and installed. Publication of Gabo book by Lund Humphries.

1958

One-man exhibition, Boymans Museum, Rotterdam and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

1959

Delivered A. W. Mellon Lectures, Washington D.C. Brother Alexei re- discovered Gabo through an exhibition catalogue.

1960

Prize from the Brandeis University.

1961

Participated in exhibitions of kinetic art held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

1962

Visited brothers Mark, Jeremy and Alexei, and sister Anna, in Moscow and Leningrad. Antoine Pevsner died.

1964

Publication of Alexei Pevsner’s book A Biographical Sketch of my Brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner.

1965 - 1966

Retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Mannheim; Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg; Kunsthaus Zürich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Tate Gallery, London.

1965

Elected member of the National Institute of Art and Letters.

1966

Elected to Royal Academy of Arts, Sweden.

1967

Awarded Honorary Doctorate at Royal College of Art, London. Awarded Großer Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

1968

Retrospective exhibition at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Alexei Pevsner visited Gabo in America.

1969

Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1970 - 1972

Travelling Exhibition: Louisiana Museet, Humlebaek, Denmark; Sonia Henies Museum, Høvikodden, Norway; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Kunstverein Hannover; Musée de Peinture et Sculpture, Grenoble; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
Alexei Pevsner visited Gabo in London.

1970

Commissioned to make Torsion fountain, installed at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London in 1975.

1971

Made an Honorary K.B.E.

1973

Commissioned to make sculpture for the Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

1975

Elected to 50-member American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1976 - 1977

November - January: One-man exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London.

1976

November 16: opening of St. Thomas’s Hospital, London and inauguration of Torsion fountain by Queen Elizabeth II.

1977

August 23, died in Waterbury (Connecticut) Hospital after a long illness.

1985 - 1987

Major retrospective Naum Gabo. Sixty Years of Constructivism shown at Dallas Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; The Tate Gallery, London.

1987 - 1988

Exhibition of monoprints shown at the Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh and Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. In 1989 tours to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

1990

Centenary exhibition inaugurates new gallery space of Annely Juda Fine Art.

1999

Naum Gabo, Annely Juda Fine Art, London. Naum Gabo: Pioneer of Abstract Sculpture at Pace Wildenstein Gallery, New York

2001

Naum Gabo, Georges Vantongerloo, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart -Works On Paper, Annely Juda Fine Art, London