Homage to Four Friends

Thomas Zung, president of the Buckminster Fuller Foundation, conceived the idea to combine a Fuller Tensegrity sphere with a Bertoia Sounding Sculpture and a Nakashima piece. All three had known each other since the 1940s, occasionally reuniting in Japan, New York or Pennsylvania, and were good friends for many decades.

In 2010, Thomas sent a letter to Val and me describing his vision of an Homage to Three Friends,

“Like the cosmos, slow movement, the expanding Universe, an Homage to Three Friends. Synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” —With a sketch of how they should relate to each other.

In the meantime, Celia Bertoia and Bill had come, bearing wood harvested from an oak tree that grew near the Bertoia Studio and had asked us to make something from it to benefit the Bertoia Foundation. My Design/Woodworking Assistant, Vaishu Ilankamban, had recently taken a course in coopering, so I thought she could put her newfound skills to use by making a resonating base to support the Fuller and Bertoia pieces mounted on a special piece of Nakashima wood. She also put her engineering skills to use, and figured out how to construct an angled pentagonal base to support a piece of beautiful Claro Walnut Burl from California. When it was finished, we set the Bertoia and Fuller piece atop the sounding table, and watched them dance together!

Realizing that Isamu Noguchi had also been part of that vibrant group of 20th-century designers and thinkers, we thought we should also include an Akari to light up the piece and dance together, making it an homage to Four Friends, rather than the original Three!

Because of the COVID-19 shutdown, we have been unable to host any live events to celebrate the completion of this wonderfully collaborative project, but have received a very kind offer through Thomas Zung to feature it at a Wright Auction in June. We hope that the proceeds from this once-in-a-lifetime piece will help support the Foundations of all Four Friends for the future!

—Mira Nakashima