Kenneth Snelson
| Kenneth Snelson | |
|---|---|
| File:Kenneth Snelson Needle Tower.JPG
Needle Tower II by Kenneth Snelson (1969) at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Netherlands
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| Born | June 29, 1927 Pendleton, Oregon |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. New York, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Oregon Black Mountain College Fernand Léger in Paris. |
| Known for | Sculpture, Photography |
Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works are composed of flexible and rigid components arranged according to the idea of 'tensegrity'. Snelson preferred the descriptive term floating compression.
Snelson said his former professor Buckminster Fuller took credit for Snelson's discovery of the concept that Fuller named tensegrity. Fuller gave the idea its name, combining 'tension' and 'structural integrity.' Ironically Kārlis Johansons had exhibited tensegrity sculptures several years before Snelson was even born. The height and strength of Snelson's sculptures, which are often delicate in appearance, depend on the tension between rigid pipes and flexible cables.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Honours and awards
- 3 Sculptures in public collections and public spaces
- 3.1 United States
- 3.1.1 Alabama
- 3.1.2 California
- 3.1.3 District of Columbia
- 3.1.4 Florida
- 3.1.5 Iowa
- 3.1.6 Louisiana
- 3.1.7 Maryland
- 3.1.8 Massachusetts
- 3.1.9 Michigan
- 3.1.10 Missouri
- 3.1.11 Nebraska
- 3.1.12 New York
- 3.1.13 New Jersey
- 3.1.14 North Carolina
- 3.1.15 Pennsylvania
- 3.1.16 Ohio
- 3.1.17 Oklahoma
- 3.1.18 Tennessee
- 3.1.19 Texas
- 3.2 Vermont
- 3.3 Wisconsin
- 3.4 International
- 3.5 Location Unknown
- 3.1 United States
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 Further reading
- 7 External links
Biography
Snelson was born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1927. He studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, at the Black Mountain College,[1] and with Fernand Léger in Paris. His sculpture and photography have been exhibited at over 25 one-man shows in galleries around the world including the structurally seminal Park Place Gallery in New York in the 1960s. Snelson also did research on the shape of the atom. Snelson continued to work in his SoHo studio, occasionally collaborating with animator Jonathan Monaghan.[2] He lived in New York City with his wife, Katherine.
He held five United States patents: #3,169,611: Discontinuous Compression Structures, February, 1965; #3,276,148: Model for Atomic Forms, October, 1966; #4,099,339: Model for Atomic Forms, July, 1978; and #6,017,220: Magnetic Geometric Building System; and most recently, #6,739,937: Space Frame Structure Made by 3-D Weaving of Rod Members, May 25, 2004.
Snelson was a founding member of ConStruct, the artist-owned gallery that promoted and organized large-scale sculpture exhibitions throughout the United States. Other founding members include Mark di Suvero, John Raymond Henry, Lyman Kipp and Charles Ginnever.
After suffering from prostate cancer, Snelson died on December 22, 2016 at the age of 89.[3]
Honours and awards
- (1999) Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center.
Sculptures in public collections and public spaces
United States
Alabama
- Mora Terry II, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham
California
- City Boots, 1968, J. Patrick Lannon Foundation, Los Angeles
- Mozart I, 1982, Stanford University, Palo Alto
District of Columbia
- Needle Tower, 1968, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
- Untitled Maquette, 1975, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington[4]
Florida
- Newport, 1968, M. Margulies, Coconut Grove
Iowa
- Four Module Piece, 1968, Terrell Mill Park, Iowa City
Louisiana
- Virlane Tower, 1981, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA, New Orleans
Maryland
- B-Tree, 1981, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
- Easy Landing, 1977, City of Baltimore, Baltimore
- Six Number Two, 1967, Annmarie Sculpture Garden (Smithsonian partner/annex site), Solomons, Maryland
Massachusetts
- Mozart III, 2008, Science Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley,[5]
Michigan
- Indexer II, 2001, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- B-Tree II, 2005, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids
Missouri
- Triple Crown, 1991, Hallmark, Inc. Kansas City
Nebraska
- Able Charlie, 1983, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha
New York
- Coronation Day, 1980, City of Buffalo, Buffalo
- E.C. Column, 1969–81, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
- Four Chances, 1982, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo
- Fair Leda, 1969, Nelson Rockefeller Estate
- Free Ride Home, 1974, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville
- Mozart II, 1982, Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden at Pepsico, Purchase
- Sun River, 1967, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
- One World Trade Center antenna/spire, 2006, One World Trade Center, New York
New Jersey
- Northwood II, 1970, Compton Quad, Graduate College, Princeton, Mercer
North Carolina
- Northwood II(maquette), 1970, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville
Pennsylvania
- Forest Devil, 1975–77, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
Ohio
- Forest Devil, 1975, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati
- V-X, 1968, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus
Oklahoma
- Sleeping Dragon, 2002–03, Kirkpatrick Oil Company Building, Oklahoma City
Tennessee
- Dragon II, 2005, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville
- V-X-II, 1973-4, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga
Texas
- Northwood, 1969, Northwood Institute, Cedar Hills
Vermont
- "Hard Wired", Bennington (College)
Wisconsin
- Northwoods III, 1970, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee
International
Germany
- Soft Landing, 1975–77, Berlin Nationalgalerie, Berlin
- Avenue K, 1968, City of Hannover
The Netherlands
- Easy-K, 1970, Sonsbeek ‘70, Arnhem
- Needle Tower II, 1969, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo
Japan
- Osaka, 1970, Japan Iron & Steel Federation, Kobe
- T-Zone Flight, 1995, JT Building, Toranomon, Tokyo
- Landing, 1970, Wakayama Prefecture Museum, Wakayama
Location Unknown
- Audrey I, 1966, Private Collection
- Audrey II, 1966, Private Collection
- Equilateral Quivering Tower, 1973–92
- Tri-Core Column, 1974
- Wing I, 1992; Ed. 4, Private collection : University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez
- Rainbow Arch, 2001
- Dragon, 2000–03
See also
- space frame
- Kārlis Johansons, tensegrity innovator
References
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<references />, or <references group="..." />- Busch, Julia M., A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia; Associated University Presses: London, 1974) ISBN 0-87982-007-1
Further reading
- Heartney, Eleanor, Kenneth Snelson: forces made visible/essay by Eleanor Heartney; additional text by Kenneth Snelson, Lenox, Massachusetts: Hard Press Editions, 2009.
- Sande-Friedman, Amy, "Kenneth Snelson & the Science of Sculpture in 1960s America", Doctoral Dissertation, New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2012.
External links
- Kenneth Snelson's official webpage
- Letter from Snelson to R. Motro regarding Fuller's role in 'discovering' Tensegrity
- Snelson interview with Robert Ayers, March 2009
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- ↑ 38th Rotterdam Film Festival Shorts Program
- ↑ Kenneth Snelson, Sculptor Who Fused Art, Science and Engineering, Dies at 89
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- Pages with reference errors
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- Articles with hCards
- 1927 births
- 2016 deaths
- American sculptors
- Black Mountain College alumni
- Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
- Deaths from prostate cancer
- Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Op art
- People from Pendleton, Oregon
- Sculptors from Oregon
- University of Oregon alumni
- Articles with dead external links from May 2017
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Articles with permanently dead external links
