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GEORGE RICKEY
(American, 1907-2002)
Two Lines Oblique, 1967-69
Stainless steel
27’ x 34’ x 21 1/8”
Bequest of George and Susan Proskauer 1992.17.78

George Rickey, one of America’s foremost sculptors, is known for his elegant stainless steel works that gracefully and silently react to the whims of passing air currents. Born in South Bend, Indiana, he was the grandson of a clock maker and the son of an engineer. Rickey was educated in Scotland and studied painting at Oxford University in England. He began making sculpture in his early forties after studying at Chicago’s Bauhaus-oriented Institute of Design, where he discovered his talent for mechanical construction. Rickey’s sculptures are manifestations of perpetual motion that epitomize the laws of nature. The twirling and spinning facets of his smaller works, and the sweeping arcs and scissor-like blades of his monumental outdoor installations—including Two Lines Oblique—are a unique blend of an artist’s formal language and an engineer’s superb craftsmanship. His kinetic sculpture makes the invisible visible, making a poem out of gravity and physics.