Dimensions: object: 152 x 152 x 32 mm
Copyright: The Work of Naum Gabo © Nina & Graham Williams/Tate, London 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Naum Gabo’s ‘Model for ‘Construction Through a Plane’’, housed here at the Tate. It’s quite small, and made with what looks like plastic. I find the transparency intriguing. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a radical reimagining of sculpture through industrial materials. Gabo used plastic, challenging traditional notions of art materials and highlighting the rise of mass production. How does this relate to utopian ideals of accessibility in art? Editor: So, it’s not just about the aesthetics, but about making art for everyone? Curator: Precisely. Gabo’s use of such materials democratizes art by linking it to everyday industrial processes and consumption. Think about what that means for our understanding of the artist’s labor. Editor: I never thought about it that way. It really changes how I see the piece. Curator: Exactly. It moves art beyond the elite, connecting it to the wider social and material world.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gabo-model-for-construction-through-a-plane-t02177
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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"'. Gallery label, August 2004
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