George Rickey

Together with Alexander Calder and David Smith, who both greatly inspired his approach, George Rickey is considered one of the most important American sculptors of his generation. The son of an engineer and the grandson of a clockmaker, it was during his service in the Army Air Corps that his interest in mechanics and technical systems flourished. In the 1940’s he started building simple mobiles, which over the decades became more complex and sophisticated. Rickey soon gained recognition when one of his works was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1951. Numerous public commissions followed and his monumental works can now be seen in major museums around the globe. Rickey’s unique approach breaks down the boundaries of the traditional definition of sculpture by introducing motion into a category of art, which is usually considered static. Like the Russian Constructivists’ interest in geometrical forms and engineering, he elaborated structures where lines, volumes and planes made of lightweight metal gravitate around long slender stems. Using ball bearings, balancing weights and sheet metal issued from aircraft techniques, he created sensitively calibrated kinetic sculptures that move with the slightest breeze, continually transforming their configuration. Always discreet and elegant, Rickey’s monuments, owing to their technical mastery and poetic sensibility, transform their surroundings and change the viewer’s perception.