Circle

Circle. A collective manifesto of Constructivism published in London in 1937, edited by the architect Leslie Martin (1908–2000), the painter Ben Nicholson, and the sculptor Naum Gabo. Subtitled ‘International Survey of Constructive Art’, it is nearly 300 pages long, with numerous illustrations, and was originally intended as an annual. The volume contains an editorial by Gabo entitled ‘The Constructive Idea in Art’, Mondrian's essay ‘Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art’, and a short statement by Moholy-Nagy on ‘Light Painting’. There are also essays or statements by, among others, Hepworth (who took much of the responsibility for the layout and production), Le Corbusier, Moore, and Read. The artists illustrated included (in addition to those already mentioned), Malevich, Lissitzky, Antoine Pevsner, and many others whose work did not conform with the theoretical concept of Constructivism, including Brancusi, Braque, Giacometti, and Picasso. Dennis Farr (English Art: 1870–1940, 1978) writes of Circle: ‘In the context of British art of the 1930s it not only provided the key to much that was most vital and exciting on the international front, but showed, too, there were Englishmen able to make a significant contribution to the modern movement in art and architecture.’ Circle was reprinted in 1971.