Four Rectangles Oblique

This sculpture was created by George Rickey, an American artist from South Bend, Indiana known for his kinetic or moving sculptures. Coming from a family of mechanical engineers and clockmakers one would expect the leap to moving sculpture to have been a natural progression. In fact, Rickey trained as a painter before pursuing his lifelong work of making the invisible visible through controlled motion. He went on to become one of the most celebrated international sculptors of the Contemporary period.

In correspondence with his mentor and teacher, Josef Albers, Rickey said the following, forever altering his artistic practice, “motion, which we are all sensitive to, which we are all capable of observing without having to be taught, is a sensation that appeals to the senses just as color does. It has an equivalent of the spectrum, different kinds of types of motion. I think that one can, to a very considerable extent, isolate motion as a visual component and design with that.”

 

 

 

• George Rickey’s sculptures are kinetic, they move with air currents or wind. Click here to see a short video of Four Rectangles Oblique in motion.  What word would you use to describe it’s movement?
• How would you describe the surfaces of the geometric shapes it’s made from—shiny or dull? Flat or textured? How does the way that Rickey treated the surface (sanding it into swirling patterns) help emphasize the movement of the sculpture? What do you see that makes you say that?
• Rickey titled his works using the names of the shapes and forms in them. What would you title this piece?

To receive the collection in your inbox, join the Raclin Murphy Museum’s mailing list.