The work Oscillation was part of a series, another of which is in the collection of Tate, London. The series subsequently inspired Construction in Aluminium, 1967, an imposing metal sculpture located on Trumpington Street, Cambridge near the Fitzwilliam Museum. While the large-scale work was constructed with the aid of the Engineering Department's workshop, Oscillation was part of a series constructed on this small scale directly by Kenneth Martin. Though at first it appears to be an entirely abstract piece, its curvaceous form takes its inspiration from a formula for a helical screw propeller. Thus, the sculpture marries Kenneth Martin's modernist passion for geometrical abstraction with his interests...