Naum Gabo

Opus Two

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About this artwork

Gabo made his first five monoprints in quick succession in the early months of 1950. He later recalled that they were prompted by the visit of a neighbour and former print curator, Williams Ivins Jnr., author of several books and essays on printmaking: ‘He turned up one day with a pocket full of engraving tools and a piece of wood and forced me to sit down, thrust into my hands the tools and the wood and guided me how to engrave.’ This monoprint was cut into a prepared piece of holly wood, a wood often used for wood engraving. It allowed Gabo to progress from Opus One and produce a more sophisticated rendering of transparency and space. There are forty recorded examples of this work.

Published September 2021

  • artist:
    Naum Gabo (1890 - 1977) RussianAmerican
  • title:
    Opus Two
  • date created:
    1950
  • materials:
    Monoprint in blue ink on Japan paper
  • measurements:
    20.40 x 15.50 cm (image size); 28.00 x 20.00 cm (base material size)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Accepted from Gareth Williams under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government and allocated to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2020
  • accession number:
    GMA 5650
  • gallery:
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Naum Gabo

Naum Gabo