George Rickey

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Two Open Triangles, Ann Arbor, Michigan

George Rickey (June 6, 1907–July 17, 2002) was an American kinetic sculptor.

Rickey was born on June 6, 1907 in South Bend, Indiana. When Rickey was a child, his father, an executive with Singer Sewing Machine Company, moved the family to Helensburgh, Scotland. Rickey was educated at Glenalmond College and received a degree in History from Balliol College, Oxford. He spent a short time traveling Europe and studied art in Paris. He then returned to the United States and began teaching at the Groton School, where among his many students was future National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy.

After leaving Groton, Rickey worked at various schools throughout the country as part of the Carnegie Corporation's Visiting Artists/Artists in Residence program (partially funded by the WPA). His focus was primarily on painting. While taking part in these programs, he painted portraits, taught classes, and created a set of murals at Knox College, Galesburg, IL.

In 1942, Rickey joined the US Army, where he worked in engineering. Following his discharge, he studied art at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts and later at the Chicago Institute of Design, funded by the G.I. bill. He taught art at variety of colleges, including Muhlenberg. While at Muhlenberg, JI Rodale commissioned Rickey to illustrate an edition of Anton Chekhov's The Beggar and Other Tales. Rickey later moved on to Indiana University. There, he met and was inspried by the work of David Smith.

Beginning in the early 1950s, Rickey shifted his focus from painting to sculpture and began creating kinetic sculpture. In his own work, Rickey combined his love of engineering and mechanics, Simth's graceful, yet solid, cubic forms, and the mobiles of Alexander Calder. Rickey was able to design sculptures whose metal parts moved in response to the slightest air currents. These parts were often very large, sometimes weighing hundreds of pounds.

In works such as Two Open Triangles, Gyratory II Rickey's two wind driven elements (geared down so that in high winds the parts are not dangerous) provide an endless series of combined, almost dance like, shapes and movements.

Most of his work was created in his studio in East Chatham, NY, where he moved after taking a job at RPI in Troy, NY. He also lived and worked in Berlin for a short time. In his later years, he divided his time between his home in East Chatham, Santa Barbara, CA and Saint Paul, MN.

He died in his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota on July 17, 2002 at the age of 95.

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[edit] References

Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, An Annoted Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County, Master's Degree Project, 1989
Lizzi, Maria. Archivist, George Rickey Workshop, East Chatham, NY