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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, although 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.cite-ref-1[1] 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

• Work

• Honours and awards

• Sculptures in public collections and public spaces

• United States

• International

• Location unknown

• See also

• References

• Further reading

• External links

Snelson was born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1927. He studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, at the Black Mountain College,cite-ref-2[2] 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.cite-ref-3[3] 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.cite-ref-4[4]

After suffering from prostate cancer, Snelson died on December 22, 2016, at the age of 89.cite-ref-5[5]

During his early years as an art student, Snelson drew an interest for the tensegrity approach. Buckminster Fuller formalized a lot of the concept, but Snelson clearly contributed to its development. Through his proximity with Bauhaus artists (Léger) and Abstract expressionists painter (de Kooning), Snelson was mainly drawn to the exploration of tensegrity and space. He claimed he developed his own empirical mathematics system to create his structures, but denies being a mathematician. He says he never found a way to formalize through mathematics the logic of his structures, and never met someone who could.cite-ref-7[7]

• (1999) Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center.

• Mora Terry II, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham

• City Boots, 1968, J. Patrick Lannon Foundation, Los Angeles

• Mozart I, 1982, Stanford University, Palo Alto

• Needle Tower, 1968, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington

• Untitled Maquette, 1975, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washingtoncite-ref-8[8]

• Newport, 1968, M. Margulies, Coconut Grove

• Double City Boots, 1967, MDC Wolfson Campus, Miamicite-ref-9[9]

• X-Planar Tower, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

• Four Module Piece, 1968, Riverfront Crossings Park, Iowa City

• Virlane Tower, 1981, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA, New Orleans

• 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

• Mozart III, 2008, Science Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley,cite-ref-10[10]

• Indexer II, 2001, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• B-Tree II, 2005, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids

• 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.cite-ref-11[11]

• Able Charlie, 1983, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

• 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

• Northwood II, 1970, Compton Quad, Graduate College, Princeton, Mercer

• Northwood II(maquette), 1970, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville

• Forest Devil, 1975–77, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

• Forest Devil, 1975, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati

• V-X, 1968, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus

• Rainbow Arch, Seltzer Sculpture Park, 11205 Harborview Dr, Cleveland, OH 44102

• Sleeping Dragon, 2002–03, Kirkpatrick Oil Company Building, Oklahoma City

• Dragon II, 2005, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville

• V-X-II, 1973-4, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga

• Northwood, 1969, Northwood Institute, Cedar Hills

• "Hard Wired", Bennington (College)

• Northwoods III, 1970, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee

• Soft Landing, 1975–77, Berlin Nationalgalerie, Berlin

• Avenue K, 1968, City of Hannover

• Easy-K, 1970, Sonsbeek ‘70, Arnhem

• Needle Tower II, 1969, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo

• 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

• 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

• Space frame

• Kārlis Johansons, tensegrity innovator

cite-note-11. ↑ "FAQ". Kennethsnelson.net. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2021.

cite-note-22. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

cite-note-33. ↑ 38th Rotterdam Film Festival Shorts Program

cite-note-44. ↑ "Kenneth Snelson: Worlds". Retrieved April 4, 2024.

cite-note-55. ↑ Kenneth Snelson, Sculptor Who Fused Art, Science and Engineering, Dies at 89

cite-note-61. "Needle tower, 1968". krollermuller.nl. Kröller-Müller Museum. Retrieved May 27, 2021.

cite-note-77. ↑ citerefcoplans2002Coplans, John (June 30, 2002). "An interview with Kenneth Snelson". Art Forum. Retrieved July 17, 2025.

cite-note-88. ↑ "Kenneth Snelson Untitled Maquette, 1975". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 22, 2011.

cite-note-99. ↑ "Kenneth Snelson: Double City Boots". www.miamidade.gov. Retrieved July 17, 2025.

cite-note-1010. ↑ "Wellesley College Receives Permanent Gift of Snelson Sculpture | Wellesley College". Archived from the original on April 12, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2013.

cite-note-1111. ↑ 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, Crown Center. Triple Crown sculpture, Wikidata Q66839784

• Busch, Julia M., A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine ISBN 0-87982-007-1

• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to

Kenneth Snelson

.

• Official website

• Letter from Snelson to R. Motro regarding Fuller's role in 'discovering' Tensegrity