Jim Sanborn facts for kids

Herbert James Sanborn, Jr. (born November 14, 1945) is an American sculptor. He is famous for creating the mysterious Kryptos sculpture. This artwork has hidden messages and is located at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Biography

Jim Sanborn grew up in Virginia. His father was in charge of exhibitions at the Library of Congress. His mother was a talented concert pianist and photo researcher.

He studied many subjects in college, including paleontology (the study of fossils), fine arts, and social anthropology (the study of human societies). He earned his first degree in 1968. Later, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 1971. Sanborn also taught art at Montgomery College and was an artist-in-residence at Glen Echo Park for nine years.

Art and Invisible Forces

Sanborn's art has been shown in many famous museums. These include the High Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has also made sculptures for important places like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Central Intelligence Agency.

A big theme in his work is "making the invisible visible." Many of his sculptures explore ideas like magnetism, secret messages, and the mysteries of atomic reactions. He often uses science to inspire his art.

Sculptures with Hidden Meanings

While studying archaeology in England, Sanborn wanted to build a stone structure. This helped him understand ancient Romanesque sculptures better. From this experience, he started creating art that deals with unseen forces.

Some of his works explore the coriolis effect. This is a force that affects how objects move on a spinning planet. He has also used lodestones to show the Earth's magnetic field. Other sculptures feature the science of cryptography, which is about secret codes and messages.

One of Sanborn's most famous code-based artworks is Kryptos. This sculpture even appeared in Dan Brown's 2009 novel The Lost Symbol. The book features Robert Langdon, a character who solves symbols and mysteries.

Kryptos: A Puzzle in Stone

Kryptos at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia

Kryptos was Jim Sanborn's first sculpture that used secret codes. It was given to the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, on November 3, 1990.

This sculpture has been a big puzzle for many people. It contains 2,000 letters with hidden messages. Since it was put up, three of its four coded sections have been solved. However, no one has yet cracked the last part, which is a 97-character message. Sanborn has said that if he passes away before it's solved, he will leave a "historic record" to confirm the answer.

Ex Nexum

In 1997, Sanborn created a sculpture called Ex Nexum. It was installed at the Old US Post Office & Courthouse in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was part of the building's renovation project.

Lux

Lux was built in 2001 in Fort Myers, Florida. It is located at the Old Post Office Building. This artwork consists of two bronze cylinders. Each cylinder stands 8 feet tall and is 5 feet wide. Another of his works, Caloosahatchee Manuscripts, is also in the same location.

Exhibits and Science

Sanborn has also created art that explores atomic energy and experimental physics.

His exhibit Critical Assembly showed a three-dimensional model of parts of an atomic bomb. The sculpture included a sphere that was designed to hold nuclear materials.

Another exhibit, Terrestrial Physics, was displayed in Denver, Colorado, in 2010. It featured a sculpture that could create a very high voltage, up to 1 million volts. Sanborn even built a working Van de Graaff generator as part of this art. This machine could create nuclear fission, which is how atoms split apart.

Large Outdoor Art Projects

Sanborn also designs large outdoor artworks that people can interact with.

Coastline is one such piece. It is located at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. This sculpture is a recreation of a part of the Atlantic coastline. The waves you see there are actually transferred in "real time" from a monitoring station far away in Massachusetts!

Sanborn also designed Indian Run Park in Beltsville, Maryland. He was inspired by the Iroquois Nations who lived there almost 900 years ago. Many Iroquois artifacts have been found at this site. Sanborn himself has also hidden 10,000 arrowheads within the park grounds. This allows visitors to find and keep a piece of the artwork. The park is named after the original Indian Run river. It includes a waterfall and a walkway that looks like a winding river.

Inside the park, there is a bronze cylinder sculpture. It has text written in the Onondaga language. This text comes from the old stories of the five Iroquois nations. At night, a light shines on the cylinder, projecting its text onto the surrounding area.

Selected Works

• Kryptos, 1990, at the CIA. It has four hidden codes, meant to challenge CIA employees. So far, three parts have been solved.
• Coastline, 1993, an outdoor wave pool sculpture at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland.
• Cyrillic Projector, 1997, a sculpture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
• A,A, 2004, located at the University of Houston, near the M.D. Anderson Library.
• Lingua, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. It features historical texts from ancient times to today.
• Critical Assembly, 2003, modeled the first atomic bomb. It was displayed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
• Radiance, 2008, at Louisiana State University. It stands in front of the Center for Energy Studies.
• Terrestrial Physics, 2009, which includes a working particle accelerator. It was first shown in June 2010.

Awards and Grants

• 1982 National Endowment For The Arts Fellowship
• 1983 Kawasaki International Sculpture Symposium, Japan
• 1984 Virginia Commission On The Arts Fellowship
• 1986 National Endowment For The Arts Fellowship
• 1987 Kaoshiung Taiwan International Sculpture Symposium, Taiwan
• 1988 Awards In The Visual Arts Grant
• 1988 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant
• 1990 Art Matters Inc. Grant
• 1991 Virginia Museum Fellowship
• 1992 Virginia Commission On the Arts Grant
• 1992 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
• 1994 Virginia Commission on The Arts Grant
• 1997 Sirius Project Residency, Cork Ireland