Tim Prentice, Kinetic Sculptor Who Made ‘Toys for the Wind’, Has Died at 95

Tim Prentice, who spent the first part of his career as an architect, gradually left architecture to become a kinetic sculptor. Beginning in his forties, he resided primarily in Cornwall, Connecticut, where he made small-scale kinetic works, as well as large-scale sculptures for public and corporate institutions. Assisted by his artistic partner, David Colbert, as well as a small team of local artists and artisans, all his works, some of which were quite massive, were built in his workshop in Cornwall. As was palpable to everyone who knew him, Tim loved making “Toys for the Wind,” as he called them. When he learned in 1996 that he had macular degeneration, it scarcely affected his career. As his sight gradually worsened, he adapted by using different degrees of magnification in the glasses he wore and learning to rely on body memory, saying in an oral history with The Vision & Art Project, “I didn’t realize how much I could do with just feel. You can see with your fingers, in other words.”

In 2024, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF) produced a 42-minute film about Tim, The Air Made Visible, which they have made publicly available to stream in honor of this extraordinary artist, via the link below. From the air and sea, through schools of fish and the torrent of branches whipped in the wind, to the inner recesses of his studio practice, The Air Made Visible follows Tim’s journey from architect to sculptor of dynamic, moving, three-dimensional forms inspired by nature and standing on the shoulders of such luminaries as George Rickey and Alexander Calder.