Frank Mayer Smullin (10 March 1943 – 14 November 1983) was an American sculptor known for pioneering computer-aided methods in art and for his large welded tubular sculptures.

Biography

Frank Smullin was born on 10 March 1943 to Ruth (Frankel) and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

electrical engineer

Louis Smullin Louis Dijour Smullin (February 5, 1916 – June 4, 2009) was an American electrical engineer who spend most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is best known for his work with Giorgio Fiocco to measure the dis ...

. A native of Cambridge, MA, Smullin graduated from Watertown schools and the Cambridge School of Weston before going on to earn a bachelor's in biology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and a Master of Fine Arts at Queens College in 1972. He was a Fellow from 1979 to 1980 at MIT's

Center for Advanced Visual Studies The MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) has its origins in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an arts and research center founded in 1967 by artist and teacher György Kepes ...

and Sculpture Space in

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, which helped enable him to make large-scale works. Smullin married Ruth Ann Spivak and had twin daughters, and went on to teach design and art at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, where his interdisciplinary course "Structures" was co-taught by Smullin together with the zoologist Steve Wainwright and engineer George Pearsall. Smullin died following a cerebral aneurism in his studio on 14 November 1983 at the age of 40.

Sculptures

Smullin's art, which he referred to as Analytic Constructivism, includes massive sheet metal sculptures found around university campuses on the East Coast, including

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and

. Three pieces are also held at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. In 1981, Smullin gave a keynote lecture about his tubular sculptures and techniques at a design conference in

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, paying particular attention to the granny-knot, which he found to have "an artistically much more interesting, 3-dimensional structure than the functionally preferred, but much flatter square-knot." Smullin had written a computer programme called SCULPT to assist with the vector analysis in his design process, implemented on a

Tektronix 4052 The Tektronix 4050 is a series of three desktop computers produced by Tektronix in the late 1970s through the early 1980s. The display technology is similar to the Tektronix 4010 terminal, using a storage tube display to avoid the need for video ra ...

. He was calculating the elliptic intersections and producing computer-generated outlines of his sculptures which he would color by hand; he would then use a pen-plotter to produce a scale cardboard model, before finally cutting a rolling the final sheet-metal version; his techniques left a lasting influence on computer scientist Carlo Séquin, who was in the audience. His nephew is actor Andras Jones.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smullin, Frank 1943 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American sculptors Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology fellows Queens College, City University of New York alumni Harvard College alumni Duke University faculty