Antoine Pevsner
Bas-relief en creux (Sunken Bas-relief)
1926–27
On View in Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3
1 / 1
In the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Russian Constructivists sought to align their artistic practices with the revolutionary government that was engendering hope for a more just society. Excited by industrialization and new technologies, avant-garde artists began to think of art and artistic production as a way of constructing new worlds. Much emphasis was put on objects that shape architectural space and, by extension, societal conventions. Antoine Pevsner’s Bas-relief en creux (Sunken Bas Relief) and Naum Gabo’s Linear Construction in Space No. 1 (Variation) (WU 4285) are rooted in this tradition. These artists, who were also brothers, understood time, space, light, and movement to be integral elements of modern sculpture. Pevsner’s structure is reminiscent of an engine or a mechanical apparatus. Inside the brass and bronze box intersecting axes of two folded metallic sheets culminate in a center cross with a dynamic forward thrust. Gabo’s work is also conceived around a central opening, incorporating the void as a material element of the sculpture. The ultramodern, translucent materials he employs—Perspex acrylic for the frame supporting stretched nylon monofilaments—work to dematerialize mass and surface while also underscoring the artist’s utopian ideal of providing a conduit to a “new reality”—a universal one. [Permanent collection label, 2017]
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Artist
Antoine Pevsner
(French, b. Russia, 1886–1962)
- Title Bas-relief en creux (Sunken Bas-relief)
- Date 1926–27
- Medium Relief in brass and bronze
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Dimensions
unframed | 23 5/8 x 24 5/16 x 13 1/8 in.
- Credit line University purchase, McMillan Fund, 1946
- Object number WU 3776
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Currently on View
Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3
Early Modern European and American Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/08/1998 - 10/12/1998
Cubism and Abstraction
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/12/1998 - 04/05/1998
A Gallery of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/09/1994 - 10/16/1994
Capsule of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/09/1983 - 03/06/1983
Cubist, Expressionist, and Surrealist Paintings and Sculptures
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/20/1980 - 11/02/1980
Paris—New York
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, 06/01/1977 - 09/19/1977
Seven Decades, 1895–1965: Cross Currents in Modern Art
Public Education Association (New York, New York), 04/26/1966 - 05/21/1966
Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960
Sculpture of the Twentieth Century
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 10/10/1952 - 12/07/1952
Naum Gabo—Antoine Pevsner
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 02/11/1948 - 04/25/1948
Origins of Modern Sculpture
Detroit Institute of Arts, 01/22/1946 - 03/03/1946
Saint Louis Art Museum, 03/30/1946 - 05/15/1946
October 1942–January 1946
[Art of this Century Gallery (1942–1947), New York]
Inscription [LL:] Pevsner
This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.
Related Works
go to Linear Construction in Space No.1 (Variation) page
Naum Gabo
Linear Construction in Space No.1 (Variation)
1942–43
go to The Bush, Skinny, and De-boning, from Edition No. 19 page
Kara Walker
The Bush, Skinny, and De-boning, from Edition No. 19
2002
go to Poches aux yeux (Bags under the Eyes) page
Jean Dubuffet
Poches aux yeux (Bags under the Eyes)
1959
go to Ally, from the series Bones and Unions page
