Linear Construction in Space No. 2

Linear Construction in Space No. 2 is based on a project that Naum Gabo developed for the lobby of the Esso Building in New York, but which was never actually executed. It is an object that was designed as a decorative feature above a revolving door and it was intended to revolve with the door, only more slowly. Nylon threads are stretched around a core of two intersecting transparent Perspex lobes. These threads are mounted on two black plastic shapes that end in sharp points, an arrangement that produces complex spatial forms. Twenty-six examples of this construction are known to exist, created in both hanging and standing formats, all of which differ very slightly. Naum Gabo was one of the first artists to use taut threads to give shape to his sculptures. His works are based on mathematical models. The constructivist Gabo rejected conventional notions of mass, volume and line, replacing them with the concepts of time and space, in which he interpreted time as movement. Gabo’s conceptions were based on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.