Naum gabo biography of michael
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Man Who Deciphered Linear B
The decipherment of Minoan Linear B by architect Michael Ventris is one of the great dramas of 20th century archaeology. But who was Michael Ventris, and how did he do it?
Andrew Robinson, the Literary Editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement, has now written a fascinating biography, The Man who Deciphered Linear B.
Michael Ventris was born in 1922 into a well-to-do military family. His mother was half Polish – and artistic – so he was brought up to chatter away in Polish, but his father suffered from TB and went to Switzerland to find a cure. Therefore, Michael received his early education in Switzerland, so that by the age of 10 he was fluent in English, Polish, French and German. Being a superb natural linguist, he ended up speaking most European languages fluently. He studied Latin and Greek at Stowe, and at the age of 14 quizzed Sir Arthur Evans on the Minoan B tablets. His first major paper on the tablets, proposing that they w
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Gabo was born in Russia in 1890 and became a pioneer of the Constructivist movement and one of the most important and influential sculptors of the twentieth century. Best known for his colourless Perspex and nylon sculptures Gabo’s constructions manifest his interest in engineering, constructive abstraction, and natural forms.
Gabo is less known for his two-dimensional work but this major exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see and understand this significant aspect of his work. The show includes over 60 paintings, drawings and prints from 1910 to 1973 – many previously unseen. Ranging from figurative paintings of his earliest period to abstract works that reflect the organic forms of his sculptures many of the works use vibrant colour. The exhibition also includes the large and important sculpture Column in which Gabo uses colour in the Perspex.
Gabo is not generally recognised as a colourist but this exhibition reflects his belie
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Naum Gabo, 1890–1977
GABO DIED ON AUGUST 23, 1977, at the age of 87, the gods survivor of the great form-givers of 20th-century art.
Born Naum Neemia Pevsner in Briansk, Russia, into a large well-to-do family, he was sent to Munich to study medicine. But he turned to engineering and began to be interested in modern art. Gabo’s studies were interrupted by the German declaration of war on August 1, 1914. To avoid being interned in Germany as enemy aliens, he and his younger brother Alexei left the next day for Scandinavia. On the instructions of their father, who had sworn that none of his sons should fight for the czar, they settled for the duration of the war in Norway, where their painter brother, Antoine, later to become a sculptor also, was sent to join them in 1915. It was there bygd the fjords that Gabo’s reflections on art deepened and the foundations of his style were laid. He had brought drawings for a new kind of sculpture with him and was looking “for