Naum Gabo

Dr & Mrs Owen Franklin, London (the artist's stepson; acquired from the artist in 1954)
Annely Juda Fine Art, London (acquired from the above in 1982)
Acquired from the above by the late owner in 1983

Tokyo, Tokyo Gallery, Annely Juda Fine Art at Tokyo Gallery - Russian Constructivism, 1983, illustrated in the catalogue

Herbert Read & Leslie Martin, Naum Gabo: Constructions, Sculpture, Drawings, Engravings, London, 1957, no. 76, illustration of another variant; this work listed p. 184
Steven A. Nash & Jörn Merkert, Naum Gabo, Sixty Years of Constructivism, Munich, 1985, no. 48.13, listed p. 231

Apart from two repaired fractures to the oval form, a small filling to the associated corner, and some associated tiny stress marks along the side panel, this work is in good condition.
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Linear Construction in Space No. 1 stands out as a breakthrough for Gabo in that it marked the artist’s transition to actual stringing from the incised line. According to the artist's wife Miriam Gabo, the first model was made with red thread. Gabo then experimented with nylon, producing many individual versions over a period of several years. Executed from Perspex and nylon filament, it exemplifies Gabo’s constant quest for expanding the boundaries and breaking new grounds in the medium of sculpture. The present work is a wonderful example of the spare, elegant designs that typified the work of an artist successfully bringing abstract art to a three-dimensional form.

‘The nylon filament is reflective, so between the delicacy and openness of the stringing and the transparent and reflective materials, these works take on an intense luminosity. They are like instruments of light, as reflections play across the warping movement of their curves and project through the plastic end-pieces. The stringing also creates a heightened sense of extension and duration, making palpable the element of time. It is a device that Gabo would use consistently, with either nylon or thin metallic spring-wire, throughout the rest of his career’ (Steven A. Nash, ‘Naum Gabo: Sculptures of Purity and Possibility’ in Naum Gabo, Sixty Years of Constructivism (exhibition catalogue), Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 1985, p. 38).

Gabo executed Linear Construction in Space No. 1 in various sizes and there are several variants of this sculpture. Other examples are housed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Portland Art Museum, Portland and the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.