George Rickey

GEORGE RICKEY (USA, 1907-2002) .
"Two Spirals, 1971.
Wire.
Resin stand.
Signed and dated on the base.
Provenance: Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York; Private collection, New York; Karl Hutter Fine Art.
Measurements: 16 x 12 x 5 cm. approx.

George Rickey, a pioneer of kinetic sculpture, explored movement as an essential principle of art in his work. His sculpture Spirals (1971) embodies this exploration through a wire structure that bifurcates into four arms, each ending in wire knots, creating a composition of dynamic equilibrium. In the context of his artistic output, Spirals aligns with his interest in geometric forms and interaction with wind or minimal movement. Rickey, influenced by artists such as Alexander Calder and Constructivism, sought structural simplicity but with complex mechanical choreography. The bifurcation of the wire and the knots at the end of each arm suggest an organic and fluid progression, as if the structure itself were in a process of growth or expansion. Unlike his large-scale sculptures in stainless steel, Spirals highlights a more delicate and almost draftsmanlike approach, where the movement is not only physical but also visual, generating shifting patterns of lines and shadows. In this work, Rickey demonstrates how seemingly simple materials can be transformed into a kinetic dance evoking the lightness of air and the energy contained in space.

George Rickey was an American kinetic sculptor known for his often large-scale geometric abstractions designed to move in response to air currents. Born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1907, Rickey grew up near Glasgow, Scotland. Rickey studied modern history at Balliol College, Oxford, was taught drawing at the Ruskin School, and then studied painting in Paris at André Lhote's academy and at the Académie Moderne with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. In the 1930s he painted first in a Cézannesque style and later in a Depression-era social realist style. In World War II, Rickey served in the Army Air Corps, testing the computerized instruments used by bomber gunners. The work required both mechanical skill and an understanding of the effects of wind and gravity on ballistics, which laid the foundation for his move from painting to kinetic sculpture. Under the auspices of the G.I. Bill, Rickey studied at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and, between 1948 and 1949, attended the Chicago Institute of Design, an outpost of Bauhaus teaching. Intrigued by the history of Constructivist art and the mobiles of Alexander Calder, he began creating kinetic sculptures. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Rickey developed motion systems for his sculptures that responded to the slightest variation in air currents. Over the next three decades, he developed sculptures with pieces made up of lines, planes, rotors, volumes and twists, moving in trajectories that move from simple oscillation to conical twists, describing a variety of planes or volumes. Many works from this period have been large-scale public commissions for venues in the United States, Europe and Japan. In 1979 he was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Rickey's sculptures are on permanent display at the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, New York, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, the Indiana University Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and at the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, and many other institutions. In 1985, George Rickey held a major retrospective in South Bend, Indiana, his birthplace. His sculptures were installed outside (and inside) the South Bend Art Center, and also at the Snite Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Rickey gave a presentation of his work at the Snite.