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 Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usua ...

'. Snelson preferred the descriptive term floating compression. Snelson said his former professor

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...

took credit for Snelson's discovery of the concept that Fuller named tensegrity. Fuller gave the idea its name, combining '

tension Tension may refer to: Science * Psychological stress * Tension (physics), a force related to the stretching of an object (the opposite of compression) * Tension (geology), a stress which stretches rocks in two opposite directions * Voltage or el ...

' and '

structural integrity Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...

.' 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.

Biography

Snelson was born in

Pendleton, Oregon Pendleton is a city and the county seat of Umatilla County, Oregon. The population was 17,107 at the time of the 2020 census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Pendleton ...

, in 1927. He studied at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in Eugene, at the

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...

, 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 Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, ...

. Snelson continued to work in his

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

studio, occasionally collaborating with animator

Jonathan Monaghan Jonathan Monaghan (born September 14, 1986 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York (state), New York) is a contemporary visual artist who uses computer animation software to create his work. He received his BFA in computer graphics from the New York ...

. 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 Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was bor ...

, John Raymond Henry,

Lyman Kipp Lyman Emmet Kipp, Jr. (December 24, 1929 - March 30, 2014) was a sculptor and painter who created pieces that are composed of strong vertical and horizontal objects and were often painted in bold primary colors recalling arrangements by De Sti ...

and

Charles Ginnever Charles Albert Ginnever (August 28, 1931 – June 16, 2019), was an American sculptor known primarily for large-scale abstract steel sculptures that defy simple understanding, as the works seem to constantly change form as one moves around them in ...

. After suffering from prostate cancer, Snelson died on December 22, 2016 at the age of 89.

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 The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

, 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 The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

, Washington * ''Untitled Maquette'', 1975,

, Washington

Florida

* ''Newport'', 1968, M. Margulies, Coconut Grove *
Double City Boots
', 1967, MDC Wolfson Campus, Miami * ''X-Planar Tower'', John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Iowa

* ''Four Module Piece'', 1968, Riverfront Crossings 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 The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, Bethesda * ''Easy Landing'', 1977,

City of Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, Baltimore *'' Six Number Two'', 1967, Annmarie Sculpture Garden (Smithsonian partner/annex site),

Solomons, Maryland Solomons, also known as Solomons Island, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,368 at the 2010 census, up from 1,536 in 2000. Solomons is a popular weekend ...

Massachusetts

* ''Mozart III'', 2008, Science Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley,

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, Missouri, just north of 27th Street between Main Street and Grand Blvd, at the South end of the

Crown Center Crown Center is a shopping center and neighborhood located near Downtown Kansas City, Missouri between Gillham Road and Main Street to the east and west, and between OK/E 22nd St and E 27th St to the north and south. The shopping center is ...

complex. The sculpture consists of 30–40 aluminum tubes held together and apart by steel cables. The entire assembly is roughly 23 meters on each of three sides and roughly that tall, with the low point being roughly 5 meters above the ground.This description was judged by eye from the image in Google Earth. It could be improved by closer inspection. Freedom of panorama in the United States does not extend to art work. Thus, including photos of this in Wikimedia Commons would require the permission of the owner,

Nebraska

* ''Able Charlie'', 1983,

Joslyn Art Museum The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States. Located in Omaha, it was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. It is the only m ...

, Omaha

New York

* ''Coronation Day'', 1980, City of Buffalo, Buffalo * ''E.C. Column'', 1969–81,

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

, Buffalo * ''Four Chances'', 1982, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo * ''Fair Leda'', 1969, Nelson Rockefeller Estate * ''Free Ride Home'', 1974,

Storm King Art Center Storm King Art Center, commonly referred to as Storm King and named after its proximity to Storm King Mountain, is an open-air museum located in New Windsor, New York. It contains what is perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdo ...

, Mountainville * ''Mozart II'', 1982, Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden at Pepsico, Purchase * ''Sun River'', 1967,

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York * ''One World Trade Center antenna/spire'', 2006,

One World Trade Center One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...

, 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 The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

, Cincinnati * ''V-X'', 1968,

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, Columbus

Oklahoma

* ''Sleeping Dragon'', 2002–03,

Kirkpatrick Oil Company Building Kirkpatrick is an Irish (Ulster) and Scottish surname, and occasionally a given name, possibly a branch of the Cenél nEógain of the Northern Uí Néill. The name traditionally relates to a church ("kirk") dedicated to Saint Patrick.Way, George a ...

, 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 The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

, 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

References

*Busch, Julia M.
''A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s''
(The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia
Associated University Presses
London, 1974)

External links

Kenneth Snelson's official webpage

* ttp://www.askyfilledwithshootingstars.com/wordpress/?p=527 Snelson interview with Robert Ayers, March 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Snelson, Kenneth 1927 births 2016 deaths 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