Naum Gabo, one of the leading proponents of the Russian avant-garde art movement called constructivism, was among a generation of artists at the beginning of the 20th century who responded to recent discoveries in science and new theories about reality. They sought new visual forms and materials to give expression to these enormous changes that transformed the modern world. The influence of the cubists’ fragmentation of human anatomy is clear in this work; Gabo is, however, more radical in abstracting the figure. Here he renews sculpture in form and matter, manipulating space as an expressive element and pioneering the use of modern synthetic materials.

Excerpt from

Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2012.

• Tate, London
  See another version of Head No. 2 at the Tate.

• Guggenheim, New York
  Learn more about the life and work of Naum Gabo.