George Rickey Sculptures
American, 1907-2002
GEORGE RICKEY
Born: South Bend, Indiana, 1907 Died: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2002
George Rickey spent over five decades committed to the creation of poetic and precisely-calibrated sculptures that he referred to as his “useless machines.” Of all the natural forces, it was the wind’s movement that most captured Rickey’s imagination. He once wrote, “The artist finds waiting for him, as subject, not the trees, not the flowers, not the landscape, but the waving of branches and the trembling of stems, the piling up or scudding of clouds, the rising and setting and waxing and waning of heavenly bodies.”
Rickey began to devote himself to the investigation of motion in sculpture, producing dynamic works using simple geometric forms such as lines, squares, rectangles, circles, etc., in which his prodigious understanding of engineering and mechanics is demonstrable. Though the works enthusiastically collaborate with the interference of wind currents in their environment, the speed of their random movements are tempered by simple spacing and fixed arrangement of the elements. The relationship of the parts remains the same, but the dance is always changing. It is this tension that defines Rickey’s sculptures. “I think it’s important to make art that you have to wait for,” said the artist. As such, the works are able to oscillate gracefully through an infinite number of compositional iterations, engaging all aspects of the natural world around them—wind, light, rain, fog, or the lack thereof.
Much of Rickey’s work was created in his studio in East Chatham, New York, where he settled in 1960. Prior to that time, the artist had lived and taught in Bloomington, IN; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY, and throughout the Midwest. His childhood, youth and college years were spent in Scotland and Britain. Aside from East Chatham he had studios in Berlin, Germany and Santa Barbara, CA.
George Rickey's work is included in the permanent collections of over 150 museums worldwide, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam and Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, among many others. Key exhibitions include George Rickey: Monumental Sculptures on Park Avenue, New York (2021); A Life in Art: Works by George Rickey, Indianapolis Art Center, Indiana (2009); George Rickey: Kinetic Sculpture, A Retrospective, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida; Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids and McNay Art Museum, San Antonio (2007-09); George Rickey: Kinetische Skulpturen, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany (2003) and George Rickey – Retrospective Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1979).to
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Artist: George Rickey
Space Churn with Squares
By George Rickey
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Space Churn with Squares" is an abstract Post War kinetic sculpture in stainless steel sculpture by George Rickey in 1969. The artwork is 35 1/2 x 20 x 13 inches, weighing less than...
Category
20th Century Post-War George Rickey Sculptures
Materials
Stainless Steel
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George Rickey sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic George Rickey sculptures available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by George Rickey in marble, metal, stone and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1970s and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large George Rickey sculptures, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Clifford Singer, John Van Alstine, and Dorothy Mayhall. George Rickey sculptures prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $32,000 and tops out at $32,000, while the average work can sell for $32,000.