Kenneth Snelson: Forces Made Visible Book

Works of art these constructions certainly are, and an artist Mr. Snelson certainly is. But he is at the same time an engineer, and his sculptures are, exercises in structural theory that have the special beauty of bridges, radio transmission towers, the skeletons of skyscrapers under construction," - The New York Times Kenneth Snelson's sculpture is a familiar presence in public plazas and museum galleries around the world. Composed of steel or aluminium tubes held together with tension wires, they defy gravity while assuming intricate and evocative configurations that seem to extend impossibly into space. Snelson has also been engaged for many years in dialogue with physicists and mathematicians over the structure of the atom and the problems posed by quantum mechanics This richly illustrated presentation of Snelson's remarkable five-decade career reveals a body of work that is truly a manifestation of his lifelong exploration of the intricate structures found in nature. Forces Made Visible follows the artist's trajectory from a childhood in Pendleton, Oregon where his passion for model making began, to his formative encounter as a young man with Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountatin College, and on to his discovery of the principle of "tensegrity" which informs his sculptures and his investigations of atomic structure. Comprised of photo essays which track Snelson's artistic and personal development and his working process, as well as an analytical text by Eleanor Heartney this book offers a full rounded portrait of a man charged with having "designs on the universe".