Antoine Pevsner was a Russian sculptor born in 1886 who helped pioneer the Constructivist art movement in Russia. He studied art in Kiev and St. Petersburg before moving to Paris in 1912. There he was exposed to Cubist artists like Picasso and Braque. As the Communist government began suppressing free artistic expression in Russia, Pevsner left for Berlin where he began creating sculptures using new techniques like cutting and fixing plastics to surfaces. In 1924, Pevsner settled permanently in Paris and developed techniques like using ribbing on metal sheets to emphasize movement in his sculptures.

1. PEVSNER Author of many architectural guides

2. Antoine Pevsner was born in 1886, in Russia. He and his two brothers, Alexei and Naum, were interested in science and specialized in engineering in schooL

3. Pevsner studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev and in St. Petersburg In 1912 Pevsner went to Paris

4. He saw the cubist art of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Modigliani and Alexander Archipenko

5. They became disenchanted once it was required that art lose its autonomy and be used as a tool to propagate political philosophy They published their position in the 1920 Realistic Manifesto. Constructivism was an artistic and architectural movement in Russia from 1919 onward which dismissed "pure" art in favour of an art used as an instrument for social purposes

6. The Communist government begun to suppress all free artistic expression as "formalism," artists had the choice of either conforming to official policy or leaving. Pevsner left. He went to Berlin, where he turned to sculpture and made his first construction In 1924 he settled in Paris

7. His techniques: He began to use plastics which he cut and fixed to a surface to form the effect of a high relief. Light and shadow play an important role in his works. He used ribbing on sheet metal to emphasize linear movement, as in Construction for an Airport. Later, Pevsner had his works cast in bronze