COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000689
image_record_id
aahi0000689
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Painting
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1948-1949
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Antoine Pevsner (Russian and French, 1886-1962)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
(b Oryol, 18 Jan 1886; d Paris, 12 April 1962). French painter and sculptor of Russian birth. Son of an industrialist and brother of the sculptor naum Gabo, he grew up in Bryansk. He studied at the School of Art in Kiev (19029), where according to Gabo he first met Alexander Archipenko, and then spent a three-month probationary period at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. Among his early paintings, The Giant (1907; priv. col., see Pevsner 1964, p. 35) shows the influence of the Symbolist painter Mikhail Vrubel', but Pevsner was also impressed by the Russian Byzantine tradition. Pevsner travelled to Munich and Paris at the end of 1911 and first saw works by the Cubists at the Salon des Indépendants in 1912. On his second visit to Paris, in 1913, he resumed his acquaintance with Archipenko and met Modigliani and other Cubist painters. Drawings he did in Paris and still-lifes of this period show a clear yet tentative Cubist tendency. Pevsner returned to Bryansk at the beginning of 1914 and at the end of that year settled in Moscow. Studying works in the Shchukin and Morosov collections, he became influenced by Matisse, as demonstrated in The Dancer (?1915; untraced, see Dorival, p. 19). In 1915 Pevsner left Russia to avoid serving in the Imperial army. He joined his two younger brothers Naum Gabo and Alexei Pevsner in Oslo, and he continued to paint figurative subjects and still-lifes (e.g. Pears on a Table, 1916; Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum). In 1917 he and Gabo returned to Russia, and from 1918 Pevsner taught painting, first at Svomas (Free Art Studios) and then at Vkhutemas (Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). It was probably at this time that Pevsner moved towards abstraction (e.g. Composition, c. 1918; Paris, Pompidou), although the dating of his works remains controversial. In 1920 Pevsner co-signed Gabo's Realistic Manifesto, issued in conjunction with an open-air exhibition held on Tverskoy Boulevard. Though the manifesto was directed more towards Gabo's three-dimensional work, Pevsner's paintings grew more precise and geometric. He also began to try out unusual painting techniques, such as encaustic (e.g. Abstract Forms, ?19223; New York, MOMA). Works of this type are characterized by areas of dense colour and varying surface texture, with the geometric design reinforced by scoring the paint surface (e.g. Composition, c. 1923; Paris, Pompidou). In 1923 Pevsner and his wife emigrated to Berlin and after some nine months settled in Paris. During the 1920s, under Gabo's influence, Pevsner started making constructions in plastic and wood, later using sheet-metal and glass as in, for example, Construction in Space (Project for a Fountain) (h. 692 mm, 1929; Basle, Kstmus.; see fig.). In 1926 Katherine Dreier, whom he had met in Berlin, commissioned him to create a portrait of Marcel Duchamp, whom he had also met in 1923, for the Société Anonyme. Though sadly deteriorated, this sculpture (New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.) is typical of his figurative work in celluloid. In 19267 Pevsner contributed a figure representing Aphrodite (untraced, model in London, Tate) to the set designed by Gabo for Diaghilev's ballet La Chatte, first performed in Monte Carlo in 1927. A founder-member of the Cercle et Carré group in 1929, he joined Abstractioncréation, together with Gabo, in 1931. In 1933 he met Hilla von Rebay, through whom he gained the patronage of Solomon R. Guggenheim. In the late 1930s Pevsner developed his own distinct sculptural style in which he built up complex curved surfaces by soldering or brazing together individual thin wires of bronze and other metals. This technique is demonstrated in Developable Column (1942; New York, MOMA). As with his earlier paintings, he became particularly interested in the surface texture and patination of his sculptures. In 1946 Pevsner joined with Albert Gleizes, Auguste Herbin and others to form Réalités Nouvelles. This group held its first Salon in 1947. Pevsner's work at this time was greatly appreciated by the critic Herbert Read and by the dealer Karl Nierendorf, who described Pevsner as 'the best of all the non-objective sculptors'. In 1948 Pevsner and Gabo held an important exhibition of their work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1953 Pevsner won one of the five second prizes in the international competition for which he submitted a maquette for the Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner (London, Tate). His most important commission came from Eero Saarinen in 1955 for a monumental sculpture outside the General Motors Technical Center, Warren, MI. Unusually, in this work, Developable Column of Victory: 'The Flight of the Bird', the bronze elements were cast separately and subsequently welded together. Pevsner became a French citizen in 1930. A large retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 19567, and he represented France at the 29th Venice Biennale in 1958. In 1961 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur. Following his death in 1962, his widow Virginie donated a substantial number of works to the Musée National d'Art Moderne (now in the Centre Pompidou), Paris. The details of Pevsner's life and work remain more obscure than Gabo's. Though artistically close to his brother in many ways, Pevsner had a more religious cast of mind, believing that 'the power of the constructive work must be like that of painting, which represents the divine song and music; it must have an active life of great power and eternal salvation'. He was less interested than Gabo in contemporary scientific views of the world, as he showed in his 1959 article entitled 'La Science tue la poésie'. (Grove Art Online accessed 2007-10-23)
Work Style Period:
Constructivist
work_styleperiod
Constructivist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Modernist
work_styleperiod
Modernist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
geometry
subject
geometry
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
circles (plane figures)
subject
circles (plane figures)
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
walnut stain on canvas
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid:
120.84
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Basel, Switzerland
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
© Antoine Pevsner
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see . For specific questions, suggestions, or corrections about the descriptive data for images, contact aahvrc@colorado.edu. Please include the Image Record ID ('aahi' followed by a 7-digit number) for each image in question.