GABO DIED ON AUGUST 23, 1977, at the age of 87, the last 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