John Snelson Popular Books

John Snelson Biography & Facts

Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works, exemplified by Needle Tower, 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.' 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, in 1927. He studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, at the Black Mountain College, 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. 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. Snelson was also a pioneer of digital art, using a Silicon Graphics machine to produce artistic images in the 1980s. 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, 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 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, 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, 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 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. 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 Needle Tower II, 1989,Shiga Prefecture Museum,Shiga 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, Private collection displayed at Seltzer Sculpture Garden, Cleveland, OH Dragon, 2000–03 See also Space frame Kārlis Johansons, tensegrity innovator References Busch, Julia M., A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (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. Discover the John Snelson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Snelson books.