biographie de George RICKEY (1907-2002)

Birth place: South Bend, IN

Addresses: Grew up in Scotland; East Chatham, NY, from 1960

Profession: Sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

Studied: Trinity College, Scotland; Balliol College, Oxford Univ (B.A., 1929/M.A. in art history, 1941); Ruskin Sch. Drawing, Oxford Univ., 1928-29; Acad. Andre Lhote, Paris, 1929; Acad. Mod. with Leger & Ozenfant, Paris, 1929-30; Knox College (hon. D.F.A., 1970)

Exhibited: WMAA biennials, 1952-70; PAFA Ann., 1952-54, 1966-68; CGA, 1966 (retrospective); Directions in Kinetic Sculpture, Univ. Art Mus., Univ. Calif., Berkeley, 1966; Sculpture from Twenty Nations, Guggenheim Mus., NYC, 1967; Plus by Minus, Albright-Knox Art Gal., 1968; Int. Sculptors' Symposium, Osaka, Japan, 1969; Kinetic Art, Arts Council Great Britain, Hayward Gal., London, 1970; Staempfli Gal., NYC, 1970s; Mich. Art Ann., Detroit AI; Kalamazoo AI; Am. Artists Congress. Awards: Nat. FA Honor Award, Am. Inst. Arch., 1972.

Member: United Am. Artists; Am. Artists Congress.

Work: WMAA; MoMA; MMA; Albright-Knox Art Gal., Buffalo, NY; CGA; Mus. Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Neth.; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. WPA murals: USPO, Selinsgrove, PA, and Olivet (MI) College. Commissions for kinetic sculpture: Joseph H. Hirshhorn Coll., 1962; Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 1963; Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, Neth., 1965; Nordpark, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1965; NMAA, Wash., DC, 1967.

Comments: Best known for his kinetic sculpture after 1949, especially the wind-driven works after 1959. He began as a fresco and mural painter but made his first mobile sculpture in 1945 while serving in the Air Force. Preferred medium: stainless steel. Teaching: Groton Sch., MA, early 1930s; artist-in-residence, Olivet(MI) College; chmn., art dept., Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 1941-48. Publications: auth., Constructivism: Origins and Evolution, Braziller, 1967.

Sources: WW73; WW40; Baigell, Dictionary; Nan Rosenthal, George Rickey (1977); Two Hundred Years of American Sculpture, 301-02; Robert Coates, The Art Galleries/Innovations," New Yorker (Oct., 21, 1961); "Engineer of Movement," Time Mag (Nov 4, 1966); Peter Riedl, "George Rickey: Kinetische Objekte," Philipp Reclam Journal (Stuttgart, 1970); Falk, Exh. Record Series.