Antoine Pevsner
Antoine Pevsner (January 18, 1888 - April 12, 1962) was a sculptor born in Klímavichy, Maguilov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus).
Trajectory
The son of an engineer, he received, along with his brother Naum Gabo, a first scientific training that gave him the spirit of investigation on which all his work is based.
In 1911, he left the Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and traveled to Paris, where he admired the works of Delaunay, Gleizes, Metzinger and Léger.
On a second visit to Paris in 1913, he meets Modigliani and Oleksandr Arkhipenko, who stimulate his interest in Cubism; In that same year he sees Umberto Boccioni's exhibition on architectural constructions, which interests him deeply.
He spends the war years with his brother in Oslo; there "for two years they digest all their experiences together and develop the art that they would later call Constructivism. It can be assumed that Pevsner contributed his knowledge of artistic techniques and Naum his scientific approach to materials and form. During his training as a doctor, Naum had learned to make three-dimensional constructions to illustrate mathematical formulas, so what emerged was a fusion of artistic vision and scientific method."
He returned to Russia in 1917 and taught, with Kandinsky and Malevich, at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1920, Pevsner and Gabo published the Realist Manifesto, where they affirmed that art has an absolutely independent value and a role to play in society, be it capitalist, socialist or communist, leaving clear its position against suprematism; They enunciate in this manifesto their idea of constructivism and try to translate their concepts of an absolute and essential reality, in the realization of their perceptions of the world, in the forms of space and time. They shape space through depth rather than volume and reject mass as the basis for sculpture. "The plastic constructions of Pevsner and Gabo are not exactly sculptures, because they imply the intention of annulling the concept of sculpture as a discipline traditionally defined by procedures, purposes and materials. Furthermore, sculpture is denied as a closed form that interrupts the continuity of space and defines it in relation to itself, as a void as opposed to plenitude". (Argan).
His works are present in the exhibition Erste russische Kunst Ausstellung, at the Van Diemen gallery in Berlin, in 1922. The following year he visits Berlin where he meets Duchamp and Catherine Dreier. After his meeting with Duchamp, he abandoned painting and turned to constructivist sculpture.
In 1923, he settled permanently in Paris, obtaining French citizenship in 1930.
In 1926, his works are included in an exhibition at the Little Review Gallery in New York. Together with Gabo, he designs the set design for the ballet La Chatte ( The Cat ) by Georges Balanchine with music by Henri Sauguet, produced by Sergei Diaghilev. In Paris, the two brothers are at the head of the Abstraction-Creation constructivist group, a group of artists representing various currents of abstract art. In the thirties, Pevsner's works are shown in Amsterdam, Basel, London, New York and Chicago.
In the same year, the René Drouin gallery in Paris organized his first individual exhibition. In 1948 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presents the Gabo-Pevsner exhibition and in 1952 the artist participates in the Chef-d'ouvres du XX Siècle, promoted by the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
In 1957, the same museum dedicated an individual exhibition to him.
In 1958, he was present at the Venice Biennale, in the French pavilion.
Died in Paris on April 12, 1962.