The early 1920s was a fascinating time in art theory. Constructivist art rejected modern art, beginning with Impressionism, Cubism, and Futurism as illusions. Naum Gabo was outspoken in this regard.
He and his brother Antoine went in an entirely different direction by tying their Realistic Manifesto to the work of Einstein.
The theory of light as a particle resurfaced due to Einstein’s conclusion that light's energy is related to its oscillation frequency, the fundamental point of his light quantum theory.
Gabo capitalized on this understanding by grounding his art in waves as the material reality of space and time.
However, the brothers were acutely aware that their perception of space and time had to include Faktura (fracture). The appearance of the object had to demonstrate how it had been made.
In Gabo’s case, waves as the ground of reality had to include “negative space” since they were the generative subject of the image. His works were expressions of figure-ground gestalt.
