Gabo made preliminary designs for Column in 1921 with the idea of making it into a large public sculpture, towering over the hills near Moscow. He made the first of a series of small, three-dimensional models, using glass, metal and new plastics the following year but owing to the size and nature of the work, and the unstable nature of new plastics, he was unable to convert the models into the desired monumental size. In the 1960s, as Gabo’s reputation as one of the most important and innovative twentieth-century sculptors spread, he began to think about realising the work on a less monumental scale. In the early 1970s his discovery of a new type of glass, manufactured by Pilkington Brothers in England, made construction of the work possible and two examples of the nearly two-metre tall sculpture were made.