in the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921). The long curved wire might allude to the two wheels that gave the field gun its mobility. The construction would thus relate to Lenin’s 1918 statement about war: “Those who have the best technology, organization, discipline and the best machines emerge on top. … It is necessary to master the highest technology or be crushed.”21 From this perspective, the allusions to a human head and the gun suggest that this abstract sculpture might have been conceived as a celebration of the heroic Soviet worker-solider. The only other works by Kobro that are documented from this period are Konstrukcja wisząca (1) (Suspended Construction (1); 1921) (fig. 4) and Konstrukcja wisząca (2) (Suspended Construction (2); 1921-1922)—both now lost. In both, the complexity and heaviness of ToS 75 has been replaced by pure geometric forms that defy gravity, floating in space and rotating with the ambient breezes. The smoothly articulated curvilinear and rectangular forms produce a more purely scientific and mathematical resonance than the industrial and technological connotations of ToS 75. The technique of suspending sculptural forms relates Kobro’s construction to Tatlin’s Угловой контррельеф (Corner Counter-Relief ) of 1915, but these were hung across the corners of a room and incorporated space fully into the heart of the structure.22 Similarly, Kobro may have derived some inspiration from the series of hanging constructions that Rodchenko exhibited in Moscow in May 1921. These were also based on geometric forms—the square, triangle, circle, hexagon, and ellipse—but each form was constructed from concentric rings of the given shape cut from plywood, which were then rotated to produce a skeletal form that was fully permeated by space.23
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FIG. 4: Katarzyna Kobro, Konstrukcja wisząca (2) [Suspended Construction (2)], ca. 1921–1922/1971–1979
l 21. Cited by Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989), 147. l 22. See, for example, Vladimir Tatlin, Угловой контррельеф (Corner Counter-relief ), 1915, reconstructed 1925, various metals, wood, and rope, 71 x 118 cm. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. l 23. See, for example, Rodchenko’s Пространственная конструкция №12 (Spatial Construction no. 12), ca. 1920, plywood, aluminum paint, and wire, 61 x 83.7 x 47 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York.